Download Issue 14 as PDF [5.4 MB] - Science in School

Editorial 

Welcome to the fourteenth 

issue of Science in School 

In this issue, a common theme is the nature of science 

and how to teach it. Pierre Léna, interviewed in 

our feature article (page 10), believes that when teaching 

science “it’s important to convey the idea that science is 

a human and collective adventure, not a lonely and 

national activity”. For him, it is essential to exploit children’s 

curiosity. Science teacher Jörg Gutschank agrees: 

“the point is not to know but to question, and to look for ways to solve 

problems” (online article). 

This reflects the way scientists themselves work – an approach that makes 

them very employable, explains Yasemin Koc. “You present [scientists] with 

a problem, they divide it into its individual components, investigate where 

the problem might lie, and find an efficient solution” (online article). 

Scientists are not unlike children – always asking questions. How did the 

Universe begin? What is matter? And how do we know? These were just 

some of the questions that scientists addressed at the recent EIROforum 

teacher school at CERN, Europe’s largest particle physics laboratory (page 6). 

Particle physics may sound a long way from the classroom, but even if you 

were not lucky enough to visit CERN, you can still introduce the topic into 

your lessons – visualising cosmic rays with a homemade cloud chamber 

(page 36). Visualising particles is also crucial to the ‘Radon school survey’, 

in which students measure radioactivity levels in their homes by literally 

counting holes left by α-particles (page 54). 

Radioactivity is a worry as a cause of genetic mutations, yet mutations are 

essential for evolution. Evolutionary adaptation occurs when particular DNA 

sequences help us to survive in our environment. Demonstrating which 

sequences are beneficial and how they help us survive is challenging but 

not impossible – for example in bacteria (page 58). 

Whereas some microbes are dangerous, others have their uses, such as yeast 

– which is not only used to produce bread and beer, but can convert chemical 

energy into electricity (page 32). Alternatively, chemical energy can also 

be converted into light, and vice versa, as Peter Douglas and Mike Garley 

explain (page 63). 

Light is also at the heart of Nataša Gros and her partners’ project: developing 

school experiments in spectrometry, such as measuring the levels of glucose 

in jam (page 42). Linked together, glucose units can to form starch. 

Although starch is so familiar, scientists are still investigating its structure, 

slowly, step by step, in collaborative teams (page 22) – which brings us back 

in a full circle to the nature of scientific research. 

I hope you enjoy these and the other articles in this issue – including the 

online-only ones. 

Eleanor Hayes 

Editor-in-Chief of Science in School 

editor@scienceinschool.org 

www.scienceinschool.org 

About Science in School 

Science in School promotes inspiring science teaching 

by encouraging communication between teachers, 

scientists and everyone else involved in European 

science education. 

The journal addresses science teaching both across 

Europe and across disciplines: highlighting the best in 

teaching and cutting-edge scientific research. It covers 

not only biology, physics and chemistry, but also 

earth sciences, maths, engineering and medicine, 

focusing on interdisciplinary work. The contents 

include teaching materials; cutting-edge science; 

interviews with young scientists and inspiring teachers; 

reviews of books and other resources; and 

European events for teachers and students. 

Science in School is published quarterly, both online 

and in print. The website is freely available, with 

articles in many European languages. The Englishlanguage 

print version is distributed free of charge 

within Europe. 

Contact us 

Dr Eleanor Hayes / Dr Marlene Rau 

Science in School 

European Molecular Biology Laboratory 

Meyerhofstrasse 1 

69117 Heidelberg 

Germany 

editor@scienceinschool.org 

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Contents 

Editorial 

Welcome to the fourteenth issue of Science in School 

Events 

2 Science on Stage: recent activities 

6 Teachers and scientists face to face: the first EIROforum teacher school 

10 

22 

Feature article 

10 Science is a collective human adventure: interview with Pierre Léna 

Cutting-edge science 

16 Getting ahead in evolution 

22 Starch: a structural mystery 

28 Biodiversity: a look back at 2009 

Teaching activities 

32 The microbial fuel cell: electricity from yeast 

36 Bringing particle physics to life: build your own cloud chamber 

42 Spectrometry at school: hands-on experiments 

Project in science education 

48 Physics in kindergarten and primary school 

54 The ‘Radon school survey’: measuring radioactivity at home 

Science topics 

58 Natural selection at the molecular level 

63 Chemistry and light 

28 

Additional online material 

Teacher profile 

Juggling careers: science and teaching in Germany 

Scientist profile 

A scientific mind 

48 

Reviews 

The Practical Chemistry website 

Why Evolution is True 

Resources on the web 

Science comics and cartoons 

See: www.scienceinschool.org/2010/issue14 

Events calendar: www.scienceinschool.org/events 

63 

Science in School Issue 14 : Spring 2010 1

Science on Stage: 

recent activities 

As the whirl of national Science on Stage activities 

continues, Eleanor Hayes reports on some recent 

events from Spain, German and even Canada. 

Image courtesy of Ciencia en Acción 

Spain and Portugal: Ciencia 

en Acción 

Dancing with fire, cooking with 

solar energy, and adopting a star – 

this event offered performances, competitions 

and activities for everyone. 

From Spain, Portugal, Argentina, 

Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Salvador and 

Uruguay, 500 teachers, 250 school students 

and 7000 members of the public 

flocked to the Ciencia en Acción w1 fes- 

Do you believe that 

fish have memories? 

tival in Granada, Spain, from 25-27 

September 2009. 

‘Science in Action’ – there could not 

be a better name for this dizzying display 

of science. One hundred and 

forty school and university science 

teachers presented some of the best 

projects from the Spanish- and 

Portuguese-speaking countries, sharing 

their ideas for engaging young 

people with science. These included 

dramatic physics and chemistry 

demonstrations, practical activities for 

biology and geology, sustainability 

projects, science films and much, 

much more. 

For the general public, two research 

scientists brought their subjects – the 

theory of evolution and the development 

of vaccines for Alzheimer’s disease 

– to life. For those looking for 

something still more dynamic, there 

were three eye-catching scientific performances. 

In ‘The Dance of Fire’, visitors 

discovered fire, music and the 

characteristics of waves using the 

Rubens’ tube w2 (see image below). A 

presentation of the physics of sound 

conveyed some difficult physical concepts 

in an entertaining way: the fundamentals 

of aerodynamics and aviation, 

including Bernoulli’s theorem 

and aerodynamic drag. Finally, participants 

had the opportunity to ‘Cook 

with the Sun’, assembling solar ovens 

and using them to prepare – and 

share – delicious dishes in the open 

air. 

The Ciencia en Acción festival also 

hosted the final event of the ‘Adopt a 

Star’ competition – the Spanish ver- 

A Ruben’s tube is used to demonstrate 

the relationship between sound waves 

and air pressure 

2 Science in School Issue 14 : Spring 2010 


Image courtesy of Ciencia en Acción

Events 

1 2 3 1 

Liz Wirtanen, a science and 

technology teacher from Canada, 

displays her students’ renewable 

energy project, built to scale 

2 

Erich Fock from Germany shows 

his model train project to Jonathon 

DeBooy, an outreach officer from 

the Australian synchrotron 

3 

Participants working through an 

inquiry-based activity 

Images courtesy of Science on Stage Canada 

sion of the international ‘Catch a Star’ 

competition w3 for young people. Three 

hundred teams from Spanish- and 

Portuguese-speaking countries had 

entered the competition, either investigating 

their favourite celestial object 

or astronomical phenomenon, or 

developing an astronomy outreach 

programme. For the final event, 17 

teams with a total of 80 school students 

presented their projects. The 

two winning teams were awarded a 

trip to the Spanish National Research 

Council (Consejo Superior de 

Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC), 

and a telescope. 

Science on Stage Canada 

August 2009 saw the first Science 

on Stage event w4 in Canada: small, but 

very much in the Science on Stage 

tradition. The Canadian Light Source 

at Saskatoon welcomed 12 teachers 

and other educators from Canada, 

Australia and Germany for five days 

of fun and hard work. In the science 

fair, all participants presented their 

teaching projects, sharing and swapping 

ideas with their colleagues. More 

formal discussions were organised to 

address major issues in science education, 

such as how to improve teacher 

training or motivate students to study 

science; state and private education; 

and assessment. 

An important element of any 

Science on Stage event is direct contact 

between teachers and scientists: 

at the Canadian event, scientists from 

the Canadian Light Source met with 

the teachers, explaining how a synchrotron 

works and how they analyse 

their research results. 

Image courtesy of Ciencia en Acción 

Group photo in Granada 

www.scienceinschool.org Science in School Issue 14 : Spring 2010 3

Images courtesy of Science on Stage Germany 

Teachers taking part in the Science 

on Stage Germany teacher training 

workshops 

Science on Stage Germany 

The German Science on Stage w5 

organisers continue to be busy – not 

only playing an important role in the 

establishment of Science on Stage 

Europe (Hayes, 2009) but also organising 

smaller national and international 

events. 

In June 2009, 52 participants from 

13 countries met at the Gläsernes 

Labor in Berlin for the third workshop 

on ‘Teaching Science in Europe’. 

Building on the previous workshops 

at Science on Stage 2 and the international 

Science on Stage festival 2008 in 

Berlin, the teachers continued this 

European exchange on three topics: 

science in kindergarten and primary 

school; the benefits of non-formal 

education initiatives; and moderating 

science lessons. The outcomes will be 

published in June 2010 and distributed 

via the Science on Stage Europe w6 

network. 

In September 2009, Science on Stage 

Germany, THINK ING w7 and MINT- 

EC w8 co-organised the EduNetwork 

fair w9 . For the participating teachers, 

there were lectures and workshops on 

mathematics, astronomy, nanotechnology 

and how to support talented 

students, as well as an exhibition of 

education-related companies. 

During the International Year of 

Astronomy, THINK ING, the journal 

Life and Science w10 and Science on Stage 

Germany invited teachers from 

Germany and other German-speaking 

countries to submit ideas for teaching 

astronomy. The 12 best projects were 

published in Life and Science, and the 

award ceremony took place on 24 

September in the Völklinger Hütte, 

the UNESCO World Heritage Site at 

the old Völklingen ironworks. 

First prize went to Inge Theiring for 

her bilingual project ‘Cosmological 

and general relativity phenomena in 

astrophysics’, while Lutz Clausnitzer 

took second prize with ‘Astronomy as 

interdisciplinary learning platform’. 

Christoph Noack, with his project to 

investigate the connection between 

religion and astronomy, entitled 

‘Creation and evolution’, was awarded 

third prize. The Science on Stage 

international and national events 

bring together several hundred of the 

best teachers from across Europe to 

share their teaching ideas, but it is 

important that these ideas are spread 

beyond the festivals’ participants. To 

this end, Science on Stage Germany is 

running a series of teacher training 

workshops in Berlin to present projects 

from previous festivals. 

On 13 November, 30 teachers from 

Berlin and Brandenburg attended a 

half-day workshop to learn about two 

such projects. The German project, ‘If 

colours become a health problem – 

coloured T-shirts with colours of 

plants’, began with a newspaper article 

about the recall of children’s clothing 

that contained harmful dyes. In 

an interdisciplinary project, the students 

then researched which dyes 

have been and continue to be important, 

and which harmless dyes could 

be used instead. The Austrian smoking 

prevention project uses the 

‘Smoking prevention lab’ to discourage 

14- to 18-year-old students from 

smoking. The affordable device – 

developed together with school students 

– helps to visualise and explain 

the effects of smoking on pulse rate, 

blood flow and blood pressure, as 


www.scienceinschool.org

Events 

well as on the temperature of fingers 

– without the students having to 

smoke. The ‘Smoking prevention lab’ 

is a good example for European 

exchange: after the international 

Science on Stage festival 2008, three 

German participants joined the 

Austrian project, extending it to cover 

topics in biology and chemistry. 

Image courtesy of Science on Stage Canada 

Results of the brainstorming session 

References 

Hayes E (2009) Science on Stage: heading for a country 

near you. Science in School 13: 2-3. www.scienceinschool.org/2009/issue13/sons 

Web references 

w1 – For more information about the Ciencia en Acción 

festival and details of the ‘Adopt a Star’ competition, 

see: www.cienciaenaccion.org 

w2 – For instructions on how to build your own Ruben’s 

tube, including videos and background information, see: 

www.instructables.com/id/ 

The-Rubens_-Tube:-Soundwaves-in-Fire! 

w3 – The ‘Catch a Star’ competition is organised by the 

European Association for Astronomy Education: 

www.eaae-astronomy.org 

w4 – For more information about Science on Stage Canada 

(in both English and French), see: 

www.scienceonstage.ca 

w5 – More information about Science on Stage Germany is 

available here: www.science-on-stage.de 

w6 – Copies of the publication Teaching Science in Europe 3 

can be obtained from the national steering committees. 

To find your local contact, visit the Science on Stage 

Europe website: www.science-on-stage.eu 

w7 – THINK ING is an initiative of the German 

Association of Metal and Electrical Industry Employers. 

To learn more, see: www.think-ing.de 

w8 – Organised by employers in the fields of science, engineering 

and technology (SET), MINT-EC (Verein mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlicher 

Excellence-Center an 

Schulen eV) encourages more young people to enter SET 

careers. For more details, see: www.mint-ec.de 

w9 – To learn more about the EduNetwork fair, see: 

www.edunetwork.de 

w10 – To learn more about the German-language Life and 

Science journal, see: www.lifeandscience.de 

Resources 

All previous Science in School articles about the Science on 

Stage activities can be viewed here: www.scienceinschool.org/sons 

Dr Eleanor Hayes is the Editor-in-Chief of Science in 

School. 


Teachers and scientists face 

to face: the first EIROforum 

teacher school 

Image courtesy of Dana Jancinova 

Image courtesy of Zeger-Jan Kock 

Image courtesy of Paulo José Carapito 

1 2 3 

What is matter? How did the Universe begin? 

Are there other planets like Earth? And how 

do we know? Eleanor Hayes reports on the 

first EIROforum teacher school. 

The first teacher school organised 

by EIROforum w1 , the publisher of 

Science in School, saw 35 science teachers 

from 17 European countries flock 

to CERN w2 in Geneva, Switzerland, in 

November 2009. Over four days, the 

teachers were inspired, fascinated and 

challenged by the evolution of the 

Universe – what do we know and 

how do we know it? 

The aim – which, to judge by the 

teachers’ feedback, was amply 

achieved – was to give a flavour of 

the science done in four of the seven 

EIROforum organisations, inspiring 

the teachers to return home and motivate 

their students. 

Using the same formula as CERN’s 

long-running teacher schools (see 

box), the EIROforum teacher school 

involved lectures by EIROforum scientists 

on topics as varied as the structure 

of matter (Landua & Rau, 2008), 

the origin of the Solar System w3 , the 

search for extra-solar planets 

(Fridlund, 2009) and how to build a 

cloud chamber at school (Barradas- 

Solas, 2010). Other important elements 

were visits to research facilities including 

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider 

(LHC; Landua, 2008) and the interaction 

both among the teachers and 

between teachers and scientists. 

The key point was to show the 

teachers what we know about the 

beginning and the evolution of the 

Universe, but also – perhaps even 

more importantly – how this knowledge 

was obtained. The lectures, by 

scientists from CERN, EFDA-JET, ESA 

and ESO, demonstrated how the scientific 

disciplines work together to 



Events 

unravel nature’s mysteries, how the 

research done in these four organisations 

focuses on finding answers to 

this common question. 

“The lectures were very interesting 

and they will be very valuable in my 

teaching,” reported Jens Nielsen from 

Norway. Svejina Dimitrova from 

Bulgaria and Dana Jancinova from 

Slovakia added: “We need to update 

our knowledge regularly. Such courses 

are very useful to us and we will 

be able to bring our enthusiasm to 

our students.” 

The next in the planned series of 

annual teacher schools will cover 

research from the other three 

EIROforum organisations: ESRF, ILL 

and EMBL will combine forces to 

bring life sciences alive at ESRF in 

Grenoble, France. For those European 

teachers lucky enough to be selected, 

EIROforum will cover not only the 

costs of their participation and accommodation 

but also their travel expenses 

to Grenoble. Teachers are selected 

on the basis of their motivation and 

enthusiasm to apply what they learn 

– and competition is stiff. If you’re 

inspired to take part, keep a close eye 

on the Science in School website w4 , 

where details of how to apply will be 

published. 


Image courtesy of Zeger-Jan Kock 

1 The Globe, CERN’s exhibition centre 

2 Part of an old linear accelerator 

at CERN 

3 Model of a linear accelerator 

at CERN 

4 Roof of Building 40 at CERN, housing 

scientists from the ATLAS and CMS 

experiments 

4 5 

5 Cross-section of one of the 

superconducting magnets of CERN’s 

Large Hadron Collider 

Image courtesy of CERN 

The 35 teachers who participated 

in the first EIROforum school 


Other education activities at 

the EIROforum organisations 

BACkGROund 

CERn 

The EIROforum teacher schools are based on CERN’s 

long-running physics teacher programmes, more than 

20 of which are organised each year. The three-day 

physics teacher programmes are run in English for 

teachers from all over Europe, and they include seminars, 

visits and educational activities. The national 

teacher programmes are similar, but are held in the 

national language of the participants from CERN member 

states. The high-school teachers programme in 

summer is an international three-week course held in 

English. Details of all courses are available on the 

CERN website w2 . 

EFdA-JET 

The Joint European Torus (JET) w5 

is Europe’s largest 

nuclear fusion research facility, operated under the 

European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA). 

Both EFDA-JET and many of the other fusion research 

institutes in the European Fusion Development 

Agreement (EFDA) have their own outreach programmes, 

which often include lectures, as well as visits 

to schools and research facilities. Details of the individual 

research institutes are available on the EFDA 

website w6 . 

Educational materials, including booklets, CD-ROMs, 

images and movies, are available via the EFDA website. 

The website also provides basic and more advanced 

information about fusion science. 

EMBL 

Amongst other education activities, the European 

Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) organises 2-3 

day workshops for European secondary-school teachers w7 , 

to introduce them to state-of-the-art molecular biology. 

The courses consist of lectures by EMBL scientists, 

practical activities suitable for schools, tours of the 

research facilities, and the chance to share scienceteaching 

ideas with each other and the scientists. 

ESA 

The European Space Agency (ESA) offers a range of 

hands-on projects for schools (including a current competition 

to design a satellite – the ten best satellites will 

be launched into space w8 ). Via its European Space 

Education Resource Offices in several countries w9 , ESA 

also offers support to local teachers, developing materials 

appropriate for the national education systems. 

Many more educational resources – including teaching 

materials, images, DVDs and much more – can be 

downloaded or ordered from the ESA Education website 

w10 . The ESA Kids’ website w11 , available in English, 

Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish, offers 

quizzes, pictures, animations and space-related news 

for children. 

ESO 

In support of astronomy and astrophysics education, 

especially at the secondary-school level, the European 

Southern Observatory (ESO) produces teaching material, 

such as education sheets about the Atacama Large 

Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope 

project, which accompany the planetarium show about 

ALMA, ‘In search of our cosmic origins’ w12 . Another set 

of exercises, which use real data from telescopes such 

as the ESO Very Large Telescope, is produced in collaboration 

with ESA w13 . ESO has also collaborated with the 

European Association for Astronomy Education 

(EAAE) w14 . More information about ESO’s education and 

outreach activities, as well as comprehensive galleries 

of astronomy-related image and video material, is 

available on the ESO website w15 . 

ESRF and ILL 

To be opened in 2013, the visitors’ centre on the 

ESRF w16 and ILL w17 site in Grenoble, France will introduce 

the general public and school students to neutron 

and photon science, through hands-on activities, an 

exhibition and tours of the research facilities. 



Events 

References 

For instructions on how to build and use a cloud chamber 

at school, see: 

Barradas-Solas F, Alameda-Meléndez P (2010) Bringing 

particle physics to life: build your own cloud chamber. 

Science in School 14: 

36-40. www.scienceinschool.org/2010/issue14/cloud 

To learn more about the CERN teacher schools, see: 

CERN (2009) Particle physics close up: CERN highschool 

teachers programme. Science in School 13: 4-5. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2009/issue13/cernhst 

To learn more about the CoRoT satellite’s search for 

extra-solar planets, see: 

Fridlund M (2009) The CoRoT satellite: the search for 

Earth-like planets. Science in School 13: 15-18. www.scienceinschool.org/2009/issue13/corot 

To learn more about the LHC, see: 

Landua R (2008) The LHC: a look inside. Science in 

School 10: 34-45. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2008/issue10/lhchow 

To learn more about the structure of matter, see: 

Landua R, Rau M (2008) The LHC: a step closer to the 

Big Bang. Science in School 10: 26-33. www.scienceinschool.org/2008/issue10/lhcwhy 


w1 – EIROforum brings together seven intergovernmental 

research organisations: CERN, the European Fusion 

Development Agreement (EFDA), the European 

Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the European 

Space Agency (ESA), the European Southern 

Observatory (ESO), the European Synchrotron Radiation 

Facility (ESRF), and the Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL). 

EIROforum’s mission is to combine the resources, facilities 

and expertise of its member organisations to support 

European science in reaching its full potential. 

EIROforum also simplifies and facilitates interactions 

with the European Commission and other organs of the 

European Union, national governments, industry, science 

teachers, students and journalists. For more information, 

see: www.eiroforum.org 

w2 – The CERN education website offers information 

about all the teacher programmes, as well as educational 

resources for schools. See: 

http://education.web.cern.ch/education/Welcome.html 

w3 – Many of the topics covered in Professor Bernard 

Foing’s lecture on the origin of the Solar System are 

addressed in the Science in School series on fusion in the 

Universe. See: www.scienceinschool.org/fusion 

w4 – To read or download all articles from Science in School 

– and (later this year) to find out how to apply for the 

next EIROforum teacher school – visit: www.scienceinschool.org 

w5 – The EFDA-JET website offers brochures, photos and 

videos about fusion research: www.jet.efda.org 

w6 – To learn more about EFDA, visit: www.efda.org 

w7 – For more details about courses run by EMBL’s 

European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences, see: 

www.embl.org/ells 

w8 – For details of ESA’s CanSat competition to design a 

satellite to be sent up to an altitude of 1 km, see: 

www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Education/SEMR59AK73G_0. 

html 

w9 – The ESERO website offers teaching materials to 

download or use online: 

www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESERO_Project 

w10 – For details of all ESA’s education activities, visit the 

ESA Education website: 

www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Education 

w11 – The ESA Kids’ website can be found here: 

www.esa.int/esaKIDSen 

w12 – Educational worksheets about the ALMA project 

can be downloaded here from the website ‘In search of 

our cosmic origins’: www.cosmicorigins.org/education.php 

w13 – The ESO/ESA astronomy exercise series can be 

downloaded here: www.astroex.org 

w14 – To learn more about the European Association for 

Astronomy Education, visit: www.eaae-astronomy.org 

w15 – To learn more about ESO’s education activities, see: 

www.eso.org/public/outreach/eduoff 

w16 – To learn more about the European Synchrotron 

Radiation Facility (ESRF), visit: www.esrf.eu 

w17 – For more information about the Institut 

Laue-Langevin, a European institute for neutron-based 

scientific research, see: www.ill.eu 

Resources 

Videos of all the presentations made during the first 

EIROforum teacher school can be downloaded here, 

together with the slides of the talks: 

http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=69896 

To read all Science in School articles relating to EIROforum 

and its member organisations, see: www.scienceinschool.org/eiroforum 

Dr Eleanor Hayes is the Editor-in-Chief of Science in 

School. 


Science is a collective 

human adventure: 

interview with Pierre Léna 

French astrophysicist Pierre Léna talks to 

Marlene Rau about science education 

as a symphony, the importance of 

curiosity, and his commitment to 

spreading inquiry-based science teaching 

in Europe and beyond. 

Image courtesy of 

ESO 

Image courtesy 

of 

Pierre Léna 

The Bird, an interacting 

system composed of two massive 

spiral galaxies and a third irregular 

galaxy, photographed using the Very 

Large Telescope 

As a co-founder of La main à la pâte, 

you are a good example of how an 

individual can bring about 

major changes – in this case 

introducing inquiry-based 

science teaching to primary 

schools. What would you 

tell people who don’t 

believe in their power to 

change things? 

I don’t place too much 

importance on the role 

of exceptional individuals. 

I often quote the 

French 12th-century theologian 

Bernard de 

Chartres, who said: “We 

are like dwarves standing 

on the shoulders of giants, 

and so able to see more and 

see farther than the ancients.” 

We are part of a long progression. 

It’s exactly the same for La main à 

la pâte. When John Amos Comenius 

[1592–1670] invented nursery school 

in the 17th century, it was a revolutionary 

idea that children had the 

ability to reason: they were essentially 

considered to be little animals. After 

him, people like Maria Montessori 

[1870–1952] in Italy and Célestin 

Freinet [1896–1966] in France continued 

to develop the idea that children 

are not empty bottles to be filled with 

knowledge, but extremely lively 

organisms just waiting for a chance to 

develop. 

When Georges Charpak [winner of 

the 1992 Nobel Prize in Physics] initiated 

La main à la pâte, he was drawing 

on a similar idea by another Nobel 

Prize winner, Leon Lederman, who 

had created a science education centre 

in a poor area of Chicago to train 

teachers and introduce inquiry-based 

science education into local schools. 

We are not individuals in a vacuum, 

we are just on the shoulders of predecessors, 

as they themselves were. It’s 

a long chain. 

do you think that France has a special 




history of fostering science education? 

Well, certainly Europe has a special 

history. France has played an important 

role in the history of science and 

education, as have Italy, Germany, 

Denmark and others. This is why at 

La main à la pâte, one of the very first 

books we published was called 

L’Europe des Découvertes [The Europe of 

Discoveries; Jasmin, 2004], in which we 

collected – from different European 

countries –discoveries such as that of 

the hot-air balloon, simple enough for 

children to understand. Primaryschool 

teachers can use this collection 

to give children the feeling that science 

is a collective human adventure, 

that the children belong to Europe, 

and that – like musicians in an orchestra 

– each country has played a different 

instrument. So I don’t think 

France has a unique or exceptional 

role, but we have certain talents. 

During my career, I have contributed 

to the construction of a 

European community in astronomy, 

and we have built this fantastic telescope 

in Chile: the Very Large 

Telescope [see Pierce-Price, 2006]. We 

Image courtesy of BartCo / iStockphoto 

would never have done it without the 

money from the different countries, 

but the money was not sufficient – it 

also needed the diversity of talents 

from every country. I think it’s important 

to convey the idea that science is 

a human and collective adventure, not a 

lonely and national activity. 

And it’s not just about facts, 

either. Say you teach interference in 

a physics class, using the Young 

experiment: you take a piece of 

cardboard and a needle, make two 

holes in the cardboard, shine a laser 

REvIEW 

All science teachers must have noticed the way their 

students change during their time at school. They 

generally start out excited, questioning and enthusiastic, 

and yet within the short space of a few years 

many come to find science irrelevant, dull and difficult. 

Ideally, the children’s enthusiasm and curiosity 

would be encouraged at school, in a ‘proper’ laboratory 

environment with specialist teachers who are 

able and willing to guide their students’ learning and 

inquiry. However, this is seldom the case – either in 

primary schools or in secondary schools. Primaryschool 

teachers often lack the detailed subject 

knowledge and confidence to guide student inquiry. 

Appreciate the teacher’s dilemma – struggling with 

their pupils’ ‘what, where, why’ questions, having to 

admit that they do not know, and not knowing if it is 

a shortcoming on their part or if the pupil has 

touched on an area where even career scientists 

tread very carefully! 

At secondary school, the teachers have the specialist 

scientific knowledge, but the heavily contentdrive 

curriculum means they often lack the time for 

student-centred inquiry. Thus, when children are 

young, teachers struggle to guide them in finding the 

answers they seek; when they are older, students are 

told that there simply isn’t the time for these educational 

asides. 

Pierre Léna encourages a loosening of the authoritarian 

reins and stepping away from the carefully 

orchestrated (and yet tedious) enquiries into the 

resistance of wires or the activity of enzyme solutions. 

Carefully managed, it could be liberating for 

teachers and students alike. 

Ian Francis, UK 


dren turn into good speakers, willing 

to explain to others, gradually 

improving. It is a little miracle. I have 

seen it happening so often that I can’t 

believe it’s a coincidence. Often teachers 

say: “Teaching inquiry-based 

learning is difficult, but it’s wonderful 

when I see the result, so maybe it’s 

worth trying.” 

Image courtesy of mammuth / iStockphoto 

onto it and you see the fringes – good. 

Many teachers won’t even do that; 

they will just draw the fringes and 

write the formula on the board – terrible. 

But what if you tell the pupils 

that, at the age of 20, Thomas Young 

saw two swans swimming on a pond 

at a Cambridge college, making 

waves – and saw that these waves 

were interfering? And that this observation 

contributed to Young’s idea? If 

you give this background to the formula 

on the board, it changes the students’ 

experience completely. Science 

is a process of thinking, which is triggered 

by admiration, emotion, surprise 

– and we want to convey all 

those things to children. We must not 

extinguish them. 

It can be difficult to change a firmly 

established idea of how science should 

be taught, though, can’t it? 

Yes. That’s true, and it has not been 

easy to introduce inquiry-based science 

teaching in the classroom. 

However we have one good ally in 

this battle – the child. Many teachers 

change their minds when they see a 

colleague teaching a science lesson 

like this. Because what do they see? 

They see children who don’t want to 

Swan causing interfering 

ripples in water 

have a break and play football – they 

want to continue the lesson, because 

it’s interesting. They see children for 

whom school is taught in their second 

language, or who never express themselves 

in the classroom, or with poor 

grades, low self-confidence or learning 

difficulties – they see these children 

changing their attitude. The chil- 

BACkGROund 

Pierre Léna 

Inquiry-based learning can be a way 

to develop children’s curiosity, but is 

the importance of curiosity unique to 

science teaching? Basically, you need 

curiosity to gain any kind of know - 

ledge. 

It’s true that you need curiosity for 

any kind of knowledge acquisition, 

but science is something special, and 

this is why scientists are special people 

in a sense. Scientists ask “why?” a 

lot, but you can also ask “Why does 

this person love me?” or “Why does 

this man dislike me?” Questioning is 

universal; you can question absolutely 

anything. But what makes science 

special is how we go about finding 

the answer to “why?”: the scientific 

method. 

Pierre Léna, born in 1937 in Paris, France, is an astrophysicist who 

most notably contributed to the development of infrared astronomy, 

to the conception of ESO’s Very Large Telescope w1 

in Chile, and to 

novel methods of astronomical imaging at high resolution. 

Pierre Léna is very involved in reforming school science education, 

especially through the La main à la pâte initiative to introduce 

inquiry-based science learning into primary schools, which he 

launched in 1996 together with fellow physicists and members of the 

French Academy of Sciences, Yves Quéré and Georges Charpak 

(Lellouch & Jasmin, 2009). From 1991 to 1997, Pierre Léna was president 

of the French national institute of education research. He often 

visits schools and tests ways to teach science to children. In 

November 2009, for instance, he visited the international French 

school in Beijing, China. 




Spiral galaxy NGC 1232 

located in the constellation 

Eridanus (the river), 

photographed using the Very 

Large Telescope 

Pierre Léna and Yves Quéré 

visit the international French 

school in Beijing, China 

Image courtesy of ESO 

Inquirybased 

science 

education 

Image courtesy of La main à la pâte 

Children and adults often have very 

different approaches to asking questions, 

don’t they? 

Yes, and that is what sometimes 

destabilises the teacher because children 

go to the heart of the question: 

“Why does an atom have a mass? 

What is mass?” The teachers are 

sometimes completely baffled. They 

reply: “You have to wait until you 

grow up”, or “Oh, I don’t know, I 

never understood this myself” – 

which is honest, but not very satisfactory. 

Or, worst of all: “You shouldn’t 

ask this kind of question”. One 

should take the children’s questions 

seriously though, and that’s why so 

many teachers are afraid of teaching 

inquiry-based science lessons. Once 

you open Pandora’s Box…. 

The reactions from teachers in primary 

and middle school [for pupils 

aged 12 to 15] are different, though. In 

primary schools in France, we have 

teachers who usually have little science 

background, so they are worried 

about teaching the subject in the first 

place. In middle school, however, science 

teachers have four or five years 

of university training in physics or 

biology, so they are well prepared. 

Now we’re introducing inquiry-based 

science teaching in French middle 

schools, and some teachers tell us: 

“You are getting us into trouble 

because children might ask all kinds 

of questions to which we don’t know 

the answers. So we’ll do inquirybased 

science teaching in a special 

way: we’ll guide them to the right 

answer. Of course we’ll have many 

questions coming from the class, but 

we’ll keep only those that will lead us 

exactly where we want to go.” 

It is difficult to accept a new attitude 

that might destabilise your 

authority. Children can ask many 

questions, and in the inquiry process 

they make hypotheses. Some 

hypotheses are very interesting, but 

can be destabilising for the teacher. 

Most teachers, especially in primary 

school, are very aware of their 

responsibility to educate children, 

helping them to grow as people – 

which is magnificent, of course. But 

they don’t see that science can help 

them in this task: building on chil- 

BACkGROund 

Interpretations of ‘inquirybased 

science education’ 

vary, and its applications 

differ depending on the 

age of the students. The 

basic idea is that instead of 

a teacher presenting concepts, 

their logical implications 

and examples of 

applications, children are 

involved to make their own 

observations and experiments 

and are guided by 

the teacher in developing 

their own knowledge. 

Children are encouraged 

to be curious and to tackle 

problems by observing and 

experimenting, and by 

reflecting and thinking critically 

about the meaning of 

the evidence they have 

gathered. 

This works very well in primary 

school, by taking 

advantage of children’s 

natural curiosity at this 

age. Inquiry-based science 

education also encourages 

children to develop complementary 

skills including 

working in groups, written 

and verbal expression, and 

solving open-ended problems. 


Image courtesy of ESO 

Three of the telescope domes of 

the Very Large Telescope 

dren’s curiosity to engage them with 

the world around them. And that is 

something that – as part of the La 

main à la pâte project – we are able to 

help with (see box below). 

One last question: do you have a 

dream? 

Yes, but my dream is not only for 

Europe: we are wealthy in Europe, 

but I have visited schools in Africa 

and in Latin America and seen the 

poverty. There are more than a hundred 

million children today who 

never go to school, and there are 

African schools with 120 children in 

one class. This is a very big problem. 

So if we succeed in building this 

European community of science education, 

we really have to share it with 

those countries; we have to help 

them, and also learn from them. The 

situation is bad, and climate change 

and overpopulation will make it 

worse. In a globalised world, we cannot 

just care for our own children. So 

my dream is that we build something 

for Europe, but that we then share it. 

It’s not simple, but we can do it. 

Take Abdus Salam: he was a physicist 

from Pakistan who won the 1979 Nobel 

Prize in Physics. His dream was to foster 

research in developing countries. He 

convinced UNESCO, the Italian government, 

scientists and Nobel Prize 

winners to build a centre in Trieste, 

Italy, in 1964: the Inter national Centre 

for Theoretical Physics w2 . It was to be 

a place to train scientists from devel- 

BACkGROund 

oping countries to a high international 

standard. The role this centre has 

played in changing research in those 

countries is incredible; it’s a simple 

idea and a remarkable model. 

La main à la pâte ideas have been 

extended to the Pollen project, in 

which 12 ‘seed cities’ throughout 

Europe encouraged inquiry-based 

science learning in primary schools 

(Lellouch & Jasmin, 2009). With the 

follow-up Fibonacci project, started in 

2010, the model will be extended to 

even more countries, involving not 

only primary but also secondary 

schools, and not only science but also 

mathematics (see Léna, 2009). I think 

we should convince the European 

Commission that we should also run 

a similar, dual project with, say, 12 

cities in Europe and 12 small towns in 

Africa. I know it’s possible, because 

La main à la pâte is working with a 

school in Cameroon – and science 

education has blossomed there. 

Nobody would have thought it possible, 

but we coached the teachers 

there, and it worked. Don’t forget – 

we’re dwarves standing on the shoulders 

of giants. 

Coaching teachers in La main 

à la pâte 

As part of the La main à la pâte project w3 , between 1500 and 2000 science 

or engineering students in France volunteer to help teachers use 

an inquiry-based approach in the classroom. For at least seven consecutive 

weeks, they spend half a day per week at a primary school, 

helping the teacher prepare the lessons – finding materials, preparing 

handouts, and setting up the experiments, as well as helping with the 

scientific concepts and knowledge. The teacher remains in charge of 

the lesson, and the student supports both the teacher and the children 

throughout the inquiry process. Once the lesson is over, the student 

and teacher analyse it together. For more information, see Lellouch & 

Jasmin (2009). 

14 Science in School Issue 14 : Spring 2010 



The famous ‘Sombrero’ early-type spiral 

galaxy Messier 104 in the constellation 

Virgo (the virgin), photographed using 

the Very Large Telescope 

Images courtesy of ESO 

References 

Jasmin D (2004) L’Europe des Découvertes. Paris, France: Le 

Pommier. ISBN: 9782746501683 

Lellouch S, Jasmin D (2009) Catch them young: university 

meets primary school. Science in School 11: 44-51. www.scienceinschool.org/2009/issue11/pollen 

Léna P (2009) Europe rethinks education. Science 326: 501. 

doi: 10.1126/science.1175130 

Pierce-Price D (2006) Running one of the world’s largest 

telescopes. Science in School 1: 56-60. www.scienceinschool.org/2006/issue1/telescope 


w1 – ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost 

intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe 

and the world’s most productive astronomical observatory. 

ESO’s Very Large Telescope is the world’s most 

advanced visible-light astronomical observatory, located 

high in the Chilean mountains. To learn more about ESO, 

see: www.eso.org 

As a member of EIROforum, ESO is one of the partners 

that fund and publish Science in School. For more information 

about EIROforum, see: www.eiroforum.org 

w2 – To learn more about the Abdus Salam International 

Centre for Theoretical Physics, visit: www.ictp.trieste.it 

w3 – La main à la pâte, the French programme for inquirybased 

science education, is coordinated by the French 

Academy of Sciences (Académie des sciences) with the 

support of the national institute of education research 

(Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique, INRP) and the 

École normale supérieure (Paris), in partnership with the 

ministry of education. For more information (in French) 

about La main à la pâte, see: www.lamap.fr 

For more information about the French Academy of 

Sciences, visit: www.academie-sciences.fr 

To learn more about the French national institute of 

education research, see: www.inrp.fr 

For more information about the École normale supérieure 

(Paris), see: www.ens.fr 

Resources 

Instructions for repeating Young’s light interference 

experiment are available here: http://cavendishscience.org/phys/tyoung/tyoung.htm 

If you enjoyed reading this article, why not take a look 

at other feature articles published in Science in School? 

See: www.scienceinschool.org/features 

Dr Marlene Rau was born in Germany and grew up in 

Spain. After obtaining a PhD in developmental biology 

at the European Molecular Biology laboratory in 

Heidelberg, Germany, she studied journalism and went 

into science communication. Since 2008, she has been 

the editor of Science in School. 

“We are like dwarves 

standing on the shoulders 

of giants (...)” 

Image courtesy of pagadesign / iStockphoto 


Getting ahead in evolution 

Image courtesy of NaluPhoto / iStockphoto 

Lucy Patterson talks to Èlia Benito Gutierrez, from the European 

Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, about 

how Èlia’s favourite animal, amphioxus, could be the key to 

understanding the evolution of vertebrates. 

Èlia Benito 

Gutierrez 

In the lab, 

Èlia uses high-powered 

microscopes 

to take a close look 

at the developing 

amphioxous 

brain 

In coastal seabeds around the 

world, buried up to the gills, the 

worm-like amphioxus filters plankton 

from the waves. This has been going 

on for a very long time. Day in and 

day out, for more than 520 million 

years, amphioxus – or something 

very like it – has filter-fed as the 

world changed around it. Fish 

heaved themselves onto land, 

dinosaurs rumbled across the plains, 

early man struck flints together to 

make fire, and all the while, 

amphioxus sat there. If you have the 

chance to go snorkelling, look out for 

them. They might not sound very 

dynamic, but these creatures have fascinated 

natural historians and scientists 

since the mid-19th century, 

including Èlia Benito Gutierrez. 

Her interest in amphioxus was 

sparked in her first-year zoology 

course at the Universitat de 

Barcelona w1 , Spain. “Amphioxus was 

this strange worm-like animal mentioned 

at the end of the list of invertebrates, 

before the vertebrates,” she 

remembers. Since Charles Darwin’s 

great revelation 150 years ago, many 

have considered amphioxus to be the 

key to understanding the origin of the 

vertebrates – the group of backboned 

animals including fish, amphibians, 

reptiles, birds and mammals, among 

them, of course, us. Èlia’s own niggling 

curiosity brought her, after a 

PhD in Barcelona and a research position 

in London, Uk to the European 

Molecular Biology Laboratory 

(EMBL) w2 in Heidelberg, Germany 

and a pioneering new amphioxus 

project. 

Èlia’s project falls under the still 

rather new science of ‘evo-devo’ – the 

combined study of evolution and 

Image 

courtesy 

of EMBL 

Photolab 

development. Scientists are increasingly 

realising that the intricacies of 

development – how a single fertilised 

egg gives rise to the incredible diversity 

of cells and tissues in an adult – 

have had a major impact on the 

course of evolution. 

Rather than re-inventing the wheel 

every time, new species arise through 

tweaks and adjustments to pre-exist- 




ing developmental plans. The earlier 

the tweaks, the more dramatic the 

resulting changes. Later tweaks, producing 

subtler changes, were less 

likely to cause major disadvantages, 

and thus were favoured. This has 

mind-boggling implications: the further 

back in development we look, 

the more similar we are to our evolutionary 

ancestors. For instance, did 

you know that as embryos, we pass 

through a stage in which we start to 

develop gills like our fishy predecessors? 

Just like fish embryos, we develop 

‘pharyngeal arches’, six fleshy 

pouches on either side of the neck, 

each containing a rod of cartilage. 

Evolutionary adaptations since our 

aquatic past caused these to be reassimilated 

into the developing jaw 

and tiny bones of the middle ear. 

Amphioxus is one of a very select 

group of creatures that Darwin 

termed ‘living fossils’ – species alive 

today but still remarkably similar to 

their ancient fossilised ancestors – 

which are of great value to scientists 

studying evo-devo. Other examples 

include crocodiles and the coelacanth, 

a large ancient-looking fish thought to 

be extinct until a living specimen was 

discovered in 1938. Over millennia, 

Earth has witnessed huge environmental 

changes, stimulating the evolution 

of new species, and bringing 

about the extinction of others. In fact, 

it is calculated that 99.9% of all 

species that ever lived are now 

extinct. Nonetheless, these fossil 

species have survived and appear relatively 

unchanged. Although it may 

seem that these creatures have been 

stuck in an evolutionary time warp, 

in fact their DNA has been subject to 

as many mutations as that of other 

species. However, for some reason, 

mutations that caused changes to 

body shape were never particularly 

REvIEW 

Biology 

Earth sciences 

Information and communications technology 

Evolution 

development 

Geology 

This fascinating article emphasises the importance of the science of 

evo-devo and how the invertebrate amphioxus has evolutionary 

links with vertebrates, ranging from the development of the head to 

an explanation for a slipped disc. The breadth of information covered 

in the article makes it an invaluable resource for teachers and 

for students aged 16-18. 

The information could be used for teaching vertebrate evolution, in 

particular the development of the nervous system and sensory 

organs, and for group discussion to address why amphioxus provides 

a valuable model for vertebrate development. There are interdisciplinary 

opportunities with geology (the fossil record), and with 

information and communications technology (the construction of 

phylogenetic trees). 

The article would make an excellent comprehension exercise, 

using, for example, the following questions. 

1. Why is evo-devo an important science? 

2. What is meant by a living fossil? 

3. What do you understand by the terms stem vertebrate and stem 

genome? 

4. What were the selection pressures that led to the development 

of the head? 

5. What do you understand by the term gene duplication and why 

was it crucial to vertebrate development? 

For the more adventurous, there is the potential for DNA sequence 

alignment and phylogenetic analyses between amphioxus and 

human genes. 

Mary Brenan, UK 

advantageous. For amphioxus – a versatile 

creature that is comfortable in 

many kinds of sandy or gravelly 

seabed, in warm or even rather chilly 

water – perhaps the filter-feeding 

lifestyle it shares with its ancestors 

was, even over 520 million years, 

never really under threat. 

However, what most excites 

amphioxus fans is the position of its 

ancient ancestor in the evolutionary 

tree. As Èlia explains, “what’s really 


Image 

courtesy of 

Èlia Benito Gutierrez 

Amphioxus 

1 cm 

interesting is that the ancient ancestor 

that amphioxus represents was a kind 

of minimalist or ‘stem’ vertebrate.” 

Although officially an invertebrate, 

that amphioxus has a lot in common 

with backboned vertebrates. It has a 

hollow nerve cord running down its 

back, like our spinal cord, and next to 

this a notochord, a stiff but flexible 

rod that supports the body, serving as 

a kind of primitive backbone. As 

embryos, we also have a notochord, a 

remnant from our invertebrate past, 

but just like the pharyngeal arches, 

ours is broken up and re-used – to 

make the disks that lie between the 

vertebrae. “As the closest living relative 

of the ancestor of all vertebrates, 

amphioxus gives us a rare glimpse of 

how our evolutionary ancestors are 

likely to have looked,” Èlia says. And 

really, the chances of such an evolutionarily 

important fossil species 

being alive today must be phenomenally 

slim. 

So how did the vertebrates evolve 

from these amphioxus-like ancestors? 

Of course, cartilage and bone evolution 

was very important, but the transition 

from invertebrate to vertebrate 

involved more than a backbone. It 

was also a matter of lifestyle choice, 

particularly feeding. Whereas creatures 

like amphioxus sat on the 

seabed, waiting for food to come to 

them, the early vertebrates evolved a 

new strategy: predation. They started 

to evolve the means to actively find 

food, requiring a whole raft of novel 

innovations, body parts and skills. 

Key to these was the evolution of a 

new head. 

It might seem obvious, but to 

actively feed yourself, you first have 

to find your food. For this, you need 

sophisticated sensory organs to see, 

smell, taste and hear it (although our 

invertebrate ancestors had sensory 

cells or organs, the early vertebrates 

evolved paired organs, like our eyes, 

allowing them to sense the world in 

three dimensions). Where better to 

evolve these new, food-finding tools 

and the brain they’re wired up to than 

next to your mouth? These innovations, 

in turn, broadened the menu, 

and, for most vertebrates, the pursuit 

of less digestible diets resulted in the 

evolution of a jaw with teeth to bite 

and chew food before it reaches the 

gut. 

Key to both the development and 

evolution of the head is a tissue called 

‘neural crest’ – special cells originating 

from the same tissue that makes 

our brain and spinal cord. Once 

formed, these cells begin to migrate 

all over the body. The final destination 

of many is the head, where they 

make connective tissue, muscle, skin, 

facial nerves, bones and cartilage, 

providing support crucial to the 

development of the eyes and the taste 

and smell receptors of the mouth and 

nose. Neural crest cells also contribute 

(via the pharyngeal arches) to the 

jawbones, teeth, and the tiny bones of 

the middle ear, essential for the evolution 

of hearing. 

As its name suggests (‘amphis’ 

means ‘both’ and ‘oxys’ means 

‘sharp’; so ‘sharp at both ends’), 

amphioxus doesn’t have much of a 

head. Crucially, neither does it have 

neural crest, whereas all vertebrates 

do. There is some evidence though 

that migrating cells a little like primitive 

neural crest exist in amphioxus 

and in tunicates (sea squirts), another 

invertebrate group related to the 

ancestral vertebrate. By studying 

these cells, Èlia hopes to understand 

how neural crest, and by extension, 

the head, evolved. 

Since the completion of the 

amphioxus genome sequence in 2008, 

amphioxus research has really come 

of age. Scientists like Èlia can now 

work out how the stem vertebrate 

genome would have looked. 

Comparisons with vertebrate 

genomes, including human, show 

remarkable similarity. “We now know 

that amphioxus has all the same 

important gene families that vertebrates 

have,” explains Èlia. “All the 

basic building blocks needed to make 

a vertebrate are present. So you could 

ask: why doesn’t amphioxus develop 

like a vertebrate?” The likely answer 

to this also lies in the genome. Unlike 




Image courtesy of Lucy Patterson. Constituent images courtesy of Lycaon (amphioxus), Nhobgood (sea squirt), 

Drow_male (lampreys), Albert Kok (shark), Robbot (Darwin), Lmozero (hagfish); image source: Wikimedia Commons 

You might have noticed that the evolutionary tree depicted in textbooks looks a 

little different to this one. It was traditionally assumed, based on physical similarity, 

that vertebrates were more closely related to amphioxus than to the 

rather bizarre tunicates. As larvae, tunicates look like free-swimming tadpoles 

with a notochord and nerve cord. However, as they mature, they attach themselves 

to the sea floor and metamorphose into sack-like sedentary filter feeders. 

Their notochord and neural tube degenerate – some say it’s almost as though 

they eat their own brains! 

However, in 2006, by looking at DNA, scientists discovered that, in fact, vertebrates 

share a more recent common ancestor with tunicates than with 

amphioxus. This common ancestor would probably also have looked similar to 

amphioxus, but since our lineages split, our evolution has taken a very different 

path: vertebrates evolved neural crest, a head and predation, while the tunicates 

specialised even further to become (as adults) sedentary filter feeders 

in vertebrates, where many genes are 

duplicated, all amphioxus gene families 

are present as single copies. This 

confirms suspicions of a major difference 

between vertebrates and their 

ancient ancestor: early in the evolution 

of vertebrates, the entire ancestral 

genome was duplicated, twice. 

Strange events in our evolutionary 

history at once vastly increased the 

number of genes available for natural 

selection to act on, and therefore the 

potential to evolve. With the original 

genes taking care of the usual business 

of building an animal, there was 

much greater freedom for natural 

selection to play around with the new 

copies. Through this activity, whole 

families and networks of genes were 

recycled to make new body parts and 

systems. Indeed, it’s only after the 

genome duplications that neural crest 

evolution really took off and vertebrates 

started to acquire a head. Quite 

when and how these duplications 

occurred is unclear and, over millions 

of years of subsequent evolution, 

most of the copied genes – those that 

Sitting in coastal 

seabeds around the 

world, buried in the 

sand: this is how 

amphioxus views 

the world 

didn’t give rise to new features – have 

been lost. 

So, rather than just sitting in the 

sand, with no real pressure to change, 

perhaps amphioxus has simply 

evolved as far as it could with the 

genes it has; without the influx of 

freshly copied genes, it has reached a 

dead end. Whereas for many other 

species, such a dead end would mean 

extinction, there is always a part of 

the coastline somewhere where 

amphioxus can bury itself. 

Researchers like Èlia are more than 

happy that amphioxus is still around 

today because it provides a unique 

opportunity to study how the early 

vertebrates evolved. Her particular 

interest is in the evolution of the 

brain, and she plans to construct a 

detailed map of the amphioxus brain 

as it develops, showing the positions 

of the different neurons and which 

genes they express. “By comparing 

amphioxus to vertebrate species we 

can learn how the basic machinery 

already present in the stem vertebrate 

was recruited and redeployed, eventually 

creating complex characteristics 

like memory or our ability to learn.” 

So by getting left behind for all those 

years, amphioxus might provide the 

key to our evolutionary past, helping 

us to understand the creatures we are 

today. 

Image courtesy of NaluPhoto / iStockphoto 



w1 – For more information on the Universitat de 

Barcelona, see: www.ub.edu 

w2 – Find out more about the European Molecular Biology 

Laboratory here: www.embl.org 

Resources 

To read more about the research group at EMBL where 

Èlia works and the story of her supervisor, Detlev 

Arendt, see: 

Hodge R (2006) A search for the origins of the brain. 

Science in School 2: 68-71. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2006/issue2/brain 

To learn about how a new tree of life – tracing the course 

of evolution – was established, see: 

Hodge R (2006) A new tree of life. Science in School 2: 17- 

19. www.scienceinschool.org/2006/issue2/tree 

The Understanding Evolution website from the University 

of California, Berkeley (USA), provides authoritative, 

up-to-date information about evolutionary mechanisms, 

theory, evidence and modern research. The site includes 

numerous resources for teaching about evolution, 

including evo-devo (aimed at a US audience). See: 

Berkeley’s evolution website (http://evolution.berkeley.edu) 

or use the direct link: 

http://tinyurl.com/yc27f4n 

A great feature article on evo-devo from The New York 

Times: 

Yoon CK (2007) From a Few Genes, Life’s Myriad 

Shapes. The New York Times 26 June. See the New York 

Times website (www.nytimes.com) or use the direct link: 

http://tinyurl.com/34h675 

Two popular science books about evo-devo research: 

Shubin N (2008) Your Inner Fish. A Journey into the 3.5 

Billion-Year History of the Human Body. London, UK: 

Allen Lane. ISBN: 9780713999358 

Carroll SB (2005) Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New 

Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom. 

New York, NY, USA: Norton. ISBN: 9780393060164 

A comment on the importance of the publication of the 

amphioxus genome, including some more information 

about amphioxus, from Nature: 

Gee H (2008) Evolutionary biology: The amphioxus 

unleashed. Nature 453: 999-1000. doi: 10.1038/453999a. 

Download the article free of charge from the Science in 

School website 

(www.scienceinschool.org/repository/docs/issue14_nat 

ure_gee2008.pdf), or subscribe to Nature today: 

www.nature.com/subscribe 

The amphioxus song: 

www.molecularevolution.org/mbl/resources/amphioxus 

A video of a coelacanth: 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzzxOlFJtzg 

Watch this incredible talk from paleontologist Paul Sereno. 

In just over 20 minutes he explains his research – 

digging for fossils in brand new territories – how his 

encounters with living crocodiles have revealed how 

huge ancient fossilised crocodiles would have looked, 

and how he hopes this kind of research will help to 

inspire future generations of scientists. See: 

www.ted.com/talks/view/id/428 

Read more about natural selection and molecular 

evolution in: 

Bryk J (2010) Natural selection at the molecular level. 

Science in School 14: 58-62. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2010/issue14/evolution 

For a review of a book on evolution that is suitable for 

beginners, see: 

Haubold B (2010) Review of Why Evolution is True. 

Science in School 14. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2010/issue14/evotrue 

For a complete list of all biology-related articles that have 

been published in Science in School, see: www.scienceinschool.org/biology 

Lucy Patterson finished her PhD at the University of 

Nottingham, UK, in 2005, and has since been working as a 

postdoctoral researcher, first in Oxford, UK, then in 

Freiburg and Cologne, Germany. During this time she has 

worked on answering several different questions in developmental 

biology, the study of how organisms grow and 

develop from a fertilised egg into a mature adult, using 

zebrafish embryos. She has a broad interest and enthusiasm 

for science, and is currently developing her own 

embryonic career as a science communicator. 



Image courtesy of Dietmar Klement / iStockphoto 

Starch: a structural mystery 

A string of glucose molecules: starch. It sounds simple, 

but it isn’t. dominique Cornuéjols and Serge Pérez 

explore the intricacies of its structure – and show that 

the mystery is by no means solved. 

Take a handful of spaghetti and 

throw it into boiling water. The 

stiff sticks will quickly become softer 

and gently curve while swelling. We 

take this behaviour of noodles in hot 

water for granted, but what exactly is 

happening to the fine structure of 

spaghetti to result in such a dramatic 

metamorphosis? 

The beginning of the answer is that 

pasta – like rice, potatoes or bread – 

contains a large amount of starch. But 

what is starch? Produced in plants by 

the photosynthesis of carbon dioxide, 

starch granules are made out of glucose 

polymers and serve as energy 

stores. Towards the end of the growing 

season, starch accumulates in 

twigs of trees, close to the buds. It is 

also found in fruits, seeds, rhizomes 

and tubers. Starch granules are very 

suitable for such long-term storage, 

because of their compactness, relative 

dryness and high stability. 

However, this essential source of 

energy only became accessible to 

humans once they had tamed fire, 

because raw starch granules are so 

compact that they are hardly 

digestible. In order to increase its 

digestibility, starch needs to be 

cooked: it is only once it has been 

heated that it becomes water-soluble 

and edible. 

The transformation of raw starch in 

hot water is called gelatinisation: the 

granules swell and burst, forming a 

paste. During cooling or prolonged 

storage, the starch paste often thickens 

due to a phenomenon called 

retrogradation. Gelatinisation and 

retrogradation, which correspond to 

structural modifications in the granules, 

affect the behaviour of starchcontaining 

systems. 

Consequently, starch is excellent for 

modifying the texture of many 

processed and home-cooked foods 

(for example, as flour or corn flour to 

thicken sauces), and has also been 

used for centuries for other purposes, 

including the manufacture of paper 

(sizing), glues or fabric stiffener. 

Today, new applications of starch are 

emerging, including low-calorie 

dietary fibres, biodegradable packaging 

materials, thin films and thermoplastic 

materials. 

Science: one small step at a time 

Starch, therefore, is widely used in 

industry – and has been for thousands 

of years. The scientific study of 

starch started in 1833 when the 

French chemist Anselme Payen identified 

starch as being composed of glucose 

units. However, even today, its 

biochemistry and detailed structure 

are not yet well understood. At a molecular 

level, we know that native starch (as 

it occurs naturally) is made of two distinct 

components, amylose and amylopectin, 

which can be isolated by 

fractionation and studied independently. 

Both components contain polymer 

chains of glucose units, but the chains 

are linked differently. Amylose is 

mainly linear (with glucose units 

linked by (1-4) bonds (Figure 1a), 

whereas amylopectin has a highly 




REvIEW 

The ultra structure of starch is not often considered, but 

this article describes how the components of starch – 

amylose and amylopectin – form the complicated levels 

of structure within the polymer. The article could be 

used as extension work in a lesson on starch digestion 

or measurement. It could also be used as an example 

of the use of the technique of X-ray diffraction or polarising 

light microscopy. Posters could be made (or 

homework set) on the uses of starch in industry, with 

each group taking a different use. Methods for producing 

and / or assaying starch in industry could be investigated. 

Comprehension questions could be set; for 

example: 

1. Starch is made up of 2 components that are: 

a) Amylase and amylopectin 

b) Amylose and amylopectin 

c) Glucose and amylase 

d) Glucose and amylose 

2. Describe what gelatinisation is. 

3. What are growth rings in starch? 

4. What is the difference between amylose and 

amylase? 

5. Convert the sizes of the different structural levels 

from 10 -9 m into smaller units, e.g. micrometres or 

nanometres. 

6. X-ray diffraction was used in the 1950s to determine 

the structure of a well known molecule. 

Which molecule? 

Shelley Goodman, UK 

Figure 1 

Image courtesy of Serge Pérez, ESRF 

Figure 2 

a) glucose unit 

b) 

Basic structural motifs of amylose (a) and 

amylopectin (b) 

a) 

b) 

a) Raw starch granule observed by 

scanning electron microscopy 

b) The corresponding granule under 

polarised light 

Images courtesy of Serge Pérez, ESRF 

branched, very dense structure, due 

to (1-6) linkage (Figure 1b). 

Amylopectin can contain up to a hundred 

thousand glucose residues and is 

the largest known biomacromolecule. 

Native starch granules vary enormously 

in shape and size (from 0.1 to 

200 mm), but they all have a common 

characteristic: under the microscope 

and illuminated with polarised light, 

starch grains stained with iodine 

exhibit a distinctive ‘Maltese cross’ 

(shown in orange in Figure 2b), indicating 

the existence of some common 

internal ordering. When granules are 

heated in excess water (as when 

spaghetti is cooked), the polarisation 

cross begins to disappear, demonstrating 

that this molecular order is being 

disrupted. 

The physical properties of starch – 

its stability and phase transformations, 

for example from starch granules 

to gels, or from brittle, raw pasta 

to soft, cooked pasta – are directly 

linked to this molecular order. 

However, understanding the detailed 

structure of starch requires very 

advanced research tools and techniques, 

such as X-ray crystallography, 

electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic 

resonance and computer modelling. 

With the help of these tools, scientists 

are slowly beginning to build up 

a picture of how starch – something 

we are so familiar with – is constructed. 


Starting from the nanoscale: 

double helices, lamellae and 

superhelices 

X-ray diffraction investigations at 

the nanoscopic level indicate that: 

· Starch is composed of thin lamellar 

domains (about 4.5 nm thick); 

· Each lamella is made up of about 

100 double-stranded helices, each 

consisting of about 20 glucose units 

(Figure 3); 

· The double helices are very densely 

packed, with a high degree of regularity, 

like in a crystal (see glossary 

for italicised terms). 

(For an explanation of how X-ray 

diffraction is used to analyse crystalline 

structures, see Cornuéjols, 

2009.) 

These X-ray results corroborate biochemical 

studies of the amylopectin 

molecule which show that this huge 

molecule is organised in crystalline 

clusters of double helices (Figure 4a): 

the lamellae revealed in the X-ray diffraction 

research consist of the clusters 

of double helices demonstrated in 

the biochemical studies. In this 

model, the branch points (the (1-6) 

links) in the amylopectin molecules 

are located in the less organised (or 

more amorphous) regions between the 

clusters. Amylose is entangled with 

amylopectin (Figure 4b), but so far 

BACkGROund 

Glossary 

Amorphous: Describes a material (or part of material) that has no 

organisation and no order. 

Crystal: A perfect crystal is a solid material whose constituent atoms, 

molecules or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern 

extending in all three spatial dimensions. 

Crystalline: Having the properties of a crystal; by extension, characterises 

parts of a material that are ordered (for example, a cluster of 

double helices all packed with the same orientation of the helix axis). 

Semi-crystalline: Describes a material (typically a biopolymer) with 

both amorphous and crystalline parts. 

nobody knows exactly how. 

Additional X-ray studies, using the 

techniques of small-angle and wideangle 

scattering (SAXS and WAXS) to 

analyse hydrated starch, show that 

the lamellae of double helices are 

probably organised in a helical superstructure, 

or superhelix (Figure 5). 

(For an explanation of SAXS, see 

Stanley, 2009.) 

down from the microscale: 

growth rings and blocklets 

The lamellar and superhelix structures 

of amylopectin are only a small 

part of the whole picture, however. 

On a larger (microscopic) scale, it 

is known that starch granules are 

made up of alternating amorphous 

and semi-crystalline shells, between 

100 and 800 nm thick. These structures 

are termed growth rings 

(Figure 6). 

We know almost nothing about the 

amorphous parts of the growth rings. 

The more crystalline regions, however, 

can be studied by X-ray diffraction. 

Recently experiments using extremely 

focused X-ray beams at a synchrotron 

(see box on page 25) have demon- 

Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 

a) b) 

Images courtesy of Serge Pérez, ESRF 

Double-helix structure in 

amylopectin 

a) The cluster model of amylopectin showing 

three lamellae (marked with arrows) 

b)Possible entanglement between an amylose 

chain (red) and amylopectin double helices 

(green and yellow) 

Possible model of a 

superhelix structure 




strated that within the semi-crystalline 

regions, the nanoscopic lamellae 

are parallel to the surface of the 

starch granule (Figure 7, Chanzy et 

al., 2006). This enabled scientists to 

make the link between the small 

(microscale, e.g. the starch granules) 

and the very, very small (nanoscale, 

e.g. lamellae) – a link that is difficult to 

obtain in such structural investigations. 

Another recent study, using atomic 

force microscopy to look at the starch 

granule’s surface, showed the presence 

of blocklets within the growth 

rings. These blocklets are more or less 

spherical and have a size of 20–100 nm. 

So far, however, nothing more is 

known about these blocklets. 

Taking all the studies together, we 

can be fairly sure about nanoscale 

structure (double helices forming 

lamellae) and the growth rings 

(alternating amorphous and semicrystal 

line shells); however, the evidence 

for the intermediate structures 

(the superhelices and the blocklets) is 

less solid. Furthermore, it is still 

unclear how the superhelices, 

blocklets and growth rings relate to 

each other. Figure 8 on pages 26-27, 

summarises the different structural 

levels (glucose units, helices, 

lamellae, superhelices, blocklets and 

growth rings), from the molecular 

BACkGROund 

ESRF 

The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, 

France, is a good example of a large facility operating day and night 

for the benefit of thousands of users from all over the world. A ‘user’ 

is a scientist, usually part of a larger team, who occasionally needs a 

powerful tool to obtain information on a sample of interest (a polymer, 

a protein crystal, a fossil or a catalytic reaction, for instance). 

ESRF produces extremely intense X-rays, called synchrotron radiation. 

These X-ray beams are emitted by high-energy electrons, which 

circulate in a large storage ring, 844 m in circumference. The X-ray 

beams are directed towards the beamlines, which surround the storage 

ring in the experimental hall. Each of the 42 beamlines at the 

ESRF is specialised in a specific technique or type of research. For 

around half a dozen of them, this speciality is polymers. 

In the future, polymer research will benefit from the newly created 

Partnership for Soft-Condensed Matter (which includes polymers). 

The introduction of nanobeams (even more focused, nano-sized X- 

ray beams) will soon allow even finer structural analysis and yet 

more progress in the study of polymers, including starch. 

(10 -9 m) to the microscopic (10 -5 m) 

level. 

As early as 1858, the Swiss botanist 

Carl von Nägeli had a brilliant intuition, 

stating that “The starch grain... 

opens the door to the establishment of 

a new discipline... the molecular 

mechanics of organised bodies.” He 

would no doubt be astonished that, 

more than 150 years later, we are still 

struggling to understand the complex 

architecture of starch granules. 

Figure 6 Figure 7 

a) 

Semi-crystalline 

Amorphous 

a) A series of diffraction 

images taken at different 

places in the granule 

(‘mapping’ of the granule) 


Amorphous 


b) 

b) Orientation of the lamellae 

vis-à-vis the surface of 

the granule 

Growth rings consisting of alternate 

layers of amorphous and 

semi-crystalline regions 


Image courtesy of Serge Pérez, ESRF 

a1 Glucose unit 

b2 double helix 

Top: X-ray fibre diffraction pattern 

demonstrating a double-helix structure 

(courtesy of Imberty et al., 1988) 

Bottom: model of the double-helix 

structure 

c 

d 

e 

f 

g 

Figure 8: The levels of starch organisation 

Lamella 

Top: transmission electron microscopy 

image of hydrolysed starch, showing the 

shape of the crystalline lamellae (courtesy 

of Angellier-Coussy et al., 2009) 

Bottom: model of a crystalline lamella 

made of about 100 double helices 

Superhelix 

Top: small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) 

and wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) 

diffraction images indicating the presence 

of a superhelix structure (courtesy of 

Waigh et al., 2000) 

Bottom: the superhelix model, with a 

pitch of 9 nm and a diameter of 18 nm 

Blocklets 

Top: atomic force microscopy image of 

the typical surface of a starch granule 

(courtesy of Gallant et al., 1997). The 

bumps seen on the surface indicate the 

presence of blocklets 

Bottom: blocklet model. The blocklets are 

believed to be smaller in the amorphous 

regions (central region) than in the 

semi-crystalline regions (above and 

below) 

Growth rings 

Transmission electron microscopy image 

of an ultrathin section of hydrolysed 

starch granule, showing the growth rings 

as alternate layers of amorphous and 

semi-crystalline regions (courtesy of I. 

Paintrand, CERMAV, Grenoble, France) 

Granule 

Top: starch granule observed by scanning 

electron microscopy (large image) and the 

corresponding granule under polarised 

light (inset) 

Middle: set of microfocus X-ray diffraction 

patterns recorded on a starch granule 

showing the distribution and orientation 

of the crystalline domains in a starch 

granule. Each diffraction pattern corresponds 

to an area of about 3 mm 2 of the 

specimen and steps of 7 mm separate two 

patterns (courtesy of Buléon et al., 2009) 

Bottom: starch granule section showing 

the radial orientation of the crystalline 

domains (lamellae) in a starch granule 

Glucose unit 

a 

References 

double helix 

b 

Lamella 

10 -9 m 10 -8 m 

Angellier-Coussy H, et al. (2009) The molecular structure 

of waxy maize starch nanocrystals. Carbohydrate Research 

344: 1558-1566. doi: 10.1016/j.carres.2009.04.002 

Buléon A, Véronèse G, Putaux JL (2007) Self-association 

and crystallization of amylose. Australian Journal of 

Chemistry 60: 706-718. doi:10.1071/CH07168 

Chanzy H, et al. (2006) Morphological and structural 

aspects of the giant starch granules from Phajus grandifolius. 

Journal of Structural Biology 154(1): 100-110. doi: 

10.1016./j.jsb.2005.11.007 

Cornuéjols D (2009) Biological crystals: at the interface 

between physics, chemistry and biology. Science in School 

11: 70-76. www.scienceinschool.org /2009/issue11/ 

crystallography 

Gallant DJ, Bouchet B, Baldwin PM (1997) Microscopy of 

starch: evidence of a new level of granule organization. 

Carbohydrate Polymers 32: 177-191. doi: 10.1016/ 

S0144-8617(97)00008-8 

Imberty A et al. (1988) The double-helical nature of the 

crystalline part of A-starch. Journal of Molecular Biology 

201: 365-378. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(88)90144-1 

c 




SAXS 

Superhelix Blocklets Growth rings 

d e f 

Granule 

g 

WAXS 

10 -7 m 10 -6 m 10 -5 m 

Stanley H (2009) Plasma balls: creating the 4th state of 

matter with microwaves. Science in School 12: 24-29. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2009/issue12/fireballs 

Waigh TA et al. (2000) Side-chain liquid-crystalline model 

for starch. Starch 53: 450-460. doi: 10.1002/1521- 

379X(200012)52:123.0.CO;2-5 

Resources 

For an extensive review of starch, see ESRF scientists’ 

Serge Pérez and Anne Imberty’s ‘Starch: structure and 

morphology’ website: 

www.cermav.cnrs.fr/glyco3d/lessons/starch 

Imberty A, Pérez S (1988) A revisit to the three-dimensional 

structure of B-type starch. Biopolymers 27: 1205-1221. doi: 

10.1002/bip.360270803 

Pérez S, Baldwin P, Gallant DJ (2009) Structural features of 

starch. In: Starch-Chemistry and Technology, 3 rd edition. 

BeMiller J, Whistler R (eds.). pp149-192. New York, NY, 

USA: Academic Press. ISBN: 978-0127462752 

Dominique Cornuéjols, a physicist by training, has 

worked at the ESRF since 1993 as the communication manager. 

She is particularly involved in the ESRF’s outreach 

and education programmes. 

After receiving his doctorate in crystallography from the 

Université de Bordeaux, France, Serge Pérez spent years 

doing research in America, Canada and France. He took 

up his first directorate position at the Centre de 

Recherches AgroAlimentaires in Canada in 1987. As director 

of research at the French National Center for Scientific 

Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 

CNRS) he moved to Grenoble in the 1990s, and 12 years 

later moved to ESRF as the research director. Since 2003, 

he has also been the co-director and then director of the 

Doctoral School of Chemistry and Life Sciences at the 

Université Joseph Fourier, in Grenoble. 


Biodiversity: 

Image 

courtesy of proxyminder / 

a look back at 2009 

iStockphoto 

Image courtesy of Chad Nelson 

In celebration of the 

International Year of 

Biodiversity 2010, 

Matt kaplan takes us 

on a whirlwind tour 

through the previous 

year’s most inspiring 

discoveries of biodiversity. 

The boundless variety of life on 

Earth never ceases to amaze. In 

spite of the fact that the world is 

smothered in humans, new details 

continue to arise that reveal life to be 

ever more diverse. Sometimes these 

new details reveal the presence of 

new species; sometimes they are 

behaviours or chemistries that indicate 

existing ecological relationships 

are more complex than anyone 

realised. 

With regard to species discoveries, 

the past year has been no different 

from others in recent decades, and 

new species have turned up as a 

result of intensive exploration all 

around the globe. Some of the work 

has been rather old-fashioned, with 

researchers literally turning over 

rocks in the jungle. Other projects 

have taken on a decidedly more modern 

twist, with research teams using 

genetics to work out that what we 

thought was a single species is, in 

fact, two species. 

Perhaps the most intriguing species 

find reported in the past year has 

been a bunch of worms that a team 

led by Robert Vrijenhoek at the 

Monterey Bay Aquarium discovered 

off the coast of California, USA. 

Five years ago, the team found 

worms hanging around the bones of 

whales and other large mammals on 

the ocean floor. They realised that 

these worms were rooting themselves 

in, and absorbing nutrients from, 

the whale bones. They were, bizarrely, 

animals that had become specialists 

at feeding on bones on the ocean 

floor. 




Image courtesy of L. Shyamal; image source: Wikimedia Commons 

Microhyla ornata frog from Savandurga, India. 

These frogs are also found in elephant dung 

At 

first glance, 

Vrijenhoek and his 

team assumed that the worms on the 

bones were just one or two species all 

doing roughly the same thing, yet 

that number quickly expanded to five 

species in the years following the 

worm’s discovery, and in 2009, the 

number jumped to seventeen. This 

led the team to theorise that there 

might be more than one way for a 

worm to feed on a bone. 

None of the worms have mouths or 

anuses. Instead, they all have a bulbous 

root system that they embed in 

the bones, and a variety of different 

feathery structures that the 

researchers think are being used 

for respiration (see image on page 30). 

Exactly how the worms draw out 

nutrients from bones is still something 

of a mystery, but the large number 

of new worms found in 2009 have 

so many different forms and body 

structures that the researchers are 

beginning to suggest that the ocean 

floor has an entire ecosystem of bone 

feeders of different sizes and shapes 

which likely have different tactics for 

feeding on bones. 

A species that is making this point 

most clearly is one of the newly discovered 

worms which, at first glance, 

seems to embed itself in sediment 

rather than bone. Yet as the research 

team went to look closer, they found 

that these worms, although anchoring 

in sediment, had very long root systems 

that ran out to buried bone fragments. 

They were effectively functioning 

as buried bone-shard feeding specialists, 

making them quite different 

from the other bone-feeding worms 

which have all been found directly 

embedding themselves in bones. The 

team expects that as they further 

study the new worms, even more 

diversity will be uncovered. 

Further exploration of the worms 

and their behaviours is definitely 

needed, but for the moment, it looks 

as if there is an entire world of bone 

feeders in the ocean depths. 

REvIEW 

Biology 

Ecology 

Discovering new species is not all 

there is to biodiversity. Discovering 

new ways in which already known 

species interact is equally important, 

and from this perspective, 2009 was 

one of the more fascinating years, as 

research has revealed that the presence 

or absence of elephant faeces 

plays an important role in bio - 

diversity. 

In Sri Lanka, Asian elephants are 

continually being pushed out of 

forests and isolated from regions 

where they are seen as troublemakers. 

To be fair, there is a lot of truth to this: 

the elephants readily destroy trees 

if left in an area for long enough. 

However, Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz 

at the University of Tokyo, Japan, 

revealed last year that the elephants 

appear to be giving back to their 

This article is very pleasant to read and will probably give a whole 

new meaning to the term ‘biodiversity’ to most readers. The scope 

is to show that biodiversity is by far richer than we can possibly 

imagine; to prove this, the author provides examples that will surprise 

and even amuse the reader. 

The article could be useful in the study of ecology and specifically 

in the examination of the behaviour of and the relationships 

between different species of organisms, as it suggests ‘unconventional’ 

ways in which organisms interact with each other and with 

the environment. 

The article could be used to discuss biodiversity and particularly the 

various forms it can take. Comprehension questions could include: 

1. Biodiversity is a complex term. Explain three forms that biodiversity 

can take, giving one example for each. 

2. In the article, there is a claim that elephant dung could become 

a small ecosystem. Do you agree or disagree with this claim? 

Explain the reasons for your decision. 

3. Describe a specific behaviour adopted by certain species of seaweed 

that helps them defend against pathogens when they are 

damaged. 

Michalis Hadjimarcou, Cyprus 

Image courtesy of proxyminder / iStockphoto 

Image courtesy of Smithore / iStockphoto 


Image 

courtesy 

of Nick; 

image source: Wikimedia Commons 

Image courtesy of Robert C. 

Vrijenhoek, Shannon B. Johnson 

& Greg W. Rouse; image source: 

Wikimedia Commons 

Elephant dung with dung beetles 

Osedax rubiplumus 

from whale 

environment 

in a small but 

important way: their 

piles of faeces provide housing 

to numerous species, including 

three species of frogs. 

The dung of many large mammals 

has long been known to be a fertile 

place for plants and fungi to grow, 

but seeing the dung itself used as a 

dwelling by amphibians... well, that’s 

rather new. 

Aside from frogs, Campos-Arceiz 

reports in the journal Biotropica that 

he discovered beetles, termites, ants, 

spiders, scorpions, centipedes and 

crickets in many of the elephant dung 

piles, suggesting that an elephant 

dung pile can become a small ecosystem 

on its own. In contrast, when he 

examined large piles of dung from 

other animals, such as cows, similar 

levels of diversity were not found. 

Campos-Arceiz proposes that the 

amphibians and insects might just be 

following the trails of dung and moving 

with elephant populations, suggesting 

that elephants literally bring 

their own biodiversity wherever they 

go. 

Just as new social interactions are 

constantly turning up amongst wellknown 

species such as elephants and 

frogs, so too are new chemical interactions. 

By far the most interesting 

interaction identified in 2009 is that of 

seaweeds strategically mounting 

antimicrobial defences on their surfaces, 

in locations where they need 

extra protection against pathogens. 

In the past decade, it has come to 

light that seaweed species have a host 

of antimicrobial chemical compounds 

inside them. These findings have led 

to considerable interest in seaweeds 

as potential sources to be bioprospected 

for the development of antibiotics. 

While further exploring the seaweed 

family and their chemical compounds, 

ateam of researchers led by 

Julia Kubanek at the Georgia Institute 

of Technology in Atlanta, USA, discovered 

that the antimicrobial chemi- 

Image courtesy of tswinner / iStockphoto 

Image courtesy of proxyminder / iStockphoto 




cals were not distributed throughout 

the seaweeds evenly. Instead, they 

were spread out in patches along the 

seaweed surface. These patches were 

also covered with sediment and particles 

that had been floating about in 

the water. 

Kubanek and her colleagues reported 

in The Proceedings of the National 

Academy of Sciences USA last year that 

they believe the seaweed is creating 

its own version of a scab. As the seaweed 

gets cut, attacked or abraded, 

they believe it oozes sticky carbohydrates 

rich in antimicrobial chemicals 

from inside. These chemicals then 

prevent the seaweed from becoming 

infected and the sticky ooze collects 

floating particles from the water 

to cover up the injured area. 

This sort of behaviour has 

never been seen before in seaweed, 

but the authors suggests 

that it may be similar in 

function to the resin that pine 

trees ooze when cut. 

Practically, the find is important 

for developing pharmaceuticals 

that can help wounds heal, 

but from a grander ecological perspective 

it is no more or less important 

than the discovery of new bonefeeding 

worms or of 

the use of elephant faeces as accommodation. 

Indeed, just when it seems 

as if the world’s biodiversity could 

not possibly become any richer, 

researchers prove that it can. 

Acknowledgements 

The author would like to thank 

Drs Vrijenhoek, Campos-Arceiz 

and Kubanek for taking the time 

to proofread this work and for 

providing valuable feedback. 


of bedo 

/ iStockphoto 


of adi7 / 

iStockphoto 

Image courtesy of amwu / 

iStockphoto 

Resources 

To read more about the discoveries described in this article, 

read the published research: 

Campos-Arceiz A (2009) Shit happens (to be useful)! Use 

of elephant dung as habitat by amphibians. Biotropica 41: 

406-407. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2009.00525.x 

Lane AL et al. (2009) Desorption electrospray ionization 

mass spectrometry reveals surface-mediated antifungal 

chemical defense of a tropical seaweed. Proceedings of the 

National Academy of Sciences 106: 7314-7319. doi: 

10.1073/pnas.0812020106 

Vrijenhoek RC, Johnson SB, Rouse GW (2009) A 

remarkable diversity of bone-eating worms (Osedax; 

Siboglinidae; Annelida). BMC Biology 7: 1-13. doi: 

10.1186/1741-7007-7-74 

BMC Biology is an open-access journal, thus all articles 

are freely available online. 

For more information on the International Year of 

Biodiversity, see: www.cbd.int 

The website includes a manual for educators, Biodiversity 

is Life: www.cbd.int/iyb/doc/partners/ 

iyb-waza-manual-en.pdf 

If you enjoyed this article, you might like to browse all science 

topics previously published in Science in School. See: 

www.scienceinschool.org/sciencetopics 

Matt Kaplan is a professional science journalist, based in 

both London and Los Angeles, who regularly reports on 

everything from palaeontology and parasites to virology 

and viticulture. When not stuck behind a desk, he runs 

wilderness expeditions in far-flung regions of the world. 

See: www.scholarscribe.com 

For this Science in School article, Matt waived his usual 

writing fee. 


Crocodile clips 

Image courtesy of Jobalou / iStockphoto 

The microbial fuel cell: 

electricity from yeast 

We all know that yeast is used to produce beer 

and bread – but electricity? dean Madden from 

the National Centre for Biotechnology Education, 

University of Reading, UK, shows how it works. 

Introduction 

For decades, microbes that produce 

electricity were a biological curiosity. 

Now, however, researchers foresee a 

use for them in watches and cameras, 

as power sources and for bioreactors 

to generate electricity from organic 

waste. The microbial fuel cell 

described here generates an electrical 

current by diverting electrons from 

the electron transport chain of yeast. 

It uses a ‘mediator’ (in this case, 

methylene blue) to pick up the electrons 

and transfer them to an external 

circuit. This process is not very efficient, 

and this demonstration fuel cell 

will generate only a very small current. 

In the classroom, this can provide 

a stimulating introduction to the 

study of respiration and permit the 

study of some of the factors that influence 

microbial respiration. More 

recently, mediator-less fuel cells of 

greater efficiency have been developed, 

in which the micro-organisms 

donate electrons directly to the fuelcell 

electrodes. 

Equipment and materials 

Needed by each student or working 

group 

Equipment 

· Perspex fuel cell, cut from 4 mm 

thick Perspex sheet 

· 2 neoprene gaskets 

· Cation exchange membrane, cut to 

fit between the chambers of the 

fuel cell. The membrane may be reused 

indefinitely, but will melt if it 

is autoclaved. 

· 2 x 10 ml plastic syringes, for dispensing 

liquids 

· Petri dish base or lid, on which to 

stand the fuel cell 

· 2 electrical leads with crocodile 

clips 

· 0–5 V voltmeter or multimeter 

and/or low-current motor 

· Scissors. 

Materials 

· 2 carbon-fibre tissue electrodes, cut 

to fit inside the fuel cell 

· 2 pieces of J-Cloth ® or similar fabric, 

cut to fit inside the fuel cell (the 

purpose of this cloth is simply to 

prevent the electrodes from touching 

the cation exchange membrane 

and short-circuiting the cell) 

Important: All of the solutions listed 

below must be made up in 0.1 M 

phosphate buffer, pH 7.0, not in water. 

· Dried yeast, made into a thick slurry 

in 0.1 M phosphate buffer (do 

not add glucose solution without 

first rehydrating the yeast in 

buffer) 

· 5 ml methylene blue solution (10 

mM) 

5 ml glucose solution (1 M) 

· 10 ml potassium hexacyanoferrate 

(III) solution (0.02 M) (also called 

potassium ferricyanide). 

Procedure 

1. Cut out two carbon-fibre electrodes 

as shown in on page 34. 




Image courtesy of Dean Madden 

The microbial fuel cell 

Microbiology 

Physics 

Energy 

REvIEW 

This article describes a laboratory 

practical for 

demonstrating the electron 

transport chain. The practical 

is highly relevant for 

biology lessons on microbial 

respiration. It seems 

obvious to use this practical 

as an extension of fermentation 

exercises. 

The practical can be used 

interdisciplinarily at the 

interface of biotechnology 

and physics, demonstrating 

the use of micro-organisms 

for energy production. It 

could also be related to the 

production of bioethanol, 

as an example of an alternative 

bio technological 

way of producing energy. 

Niels Bonderup Dohn, 

Denmark 

2. Cut out two pieces of J-Cloth to fit 

inside the fuel cell. 

3. Assemble the fuel cell as shown on 

page 35. 

4. Stand the assembled fuel cell on a 

Petri dish base or lid, to catch any 

liquid that may leak from the cell. 

5. Combine equal (5 ml) volumes of the 

yeast slurry, glucose and methylene 

blue solutions. Syringe this mixture 

into one chamber of the fuel cell. 

6. Syringe potassium hexacyanoferrate 

(III) solution into the other 

chamber of the cell. 

7. Connect a voltmeter or multimeter 

(via the crocodile clips) to the electrode 

terminals. A current should 

be produced immediately – if the 

meter registers zero, check the connections 

and ensure that the car- 

bon-fibre electrodes are not touching 

the cation exchange membrane. 

Typical results 

Microbial fuel cells of this type typically 

generate 0.4–0.6 V and 3–50 mA. 

If the cell is topped up with solutions 

as necessary, it will continue to generate 

electricity for several days. 

Safety 

Potassium hexacyanoferrate (III) is 

poisonous. Eye protection should be 

worn when handling this material. If 

the solution comes into contact with 

the eyes, flood them with water and 

seek medical attention. If swallowed, 

give plenty of water to drink and seek 

medical attention. If spilled on the 

skin, the solution should be washed 

off promptly with water. Local regulations 

should be observed when disposing 

of used solution. 

Recipes 

To make 0.1 M phosphate buffer, 

pH 7.0, dissolve 4.08 g Na 2 HPO 4 and 

3.29 g NaH 2 PO 4 in 500 ml distilled 

water. 

Preparation and timing 

Solutions of the reagents may be 

prepared in advance. Note, however, 

that the glucose solution should be 

prepared no sooner than 24 hours 

before the work is to be carried out, 

as the solution is not sterile and 

would therefore support the growth 

of contaminating micro-organisms. 

Pre-soak the cation exchange mem- 


Images courtesy of Dean Madden 

Anode 

Cathode 

Glucose 

Electrons 

Methylene blue 

(reduced) 

Potassium 

hexacyanoferrate 

The carbon fibre used to make the electrodes 

has a ‘grain’. To ensure that the 

long ‘tail’ of the electrode does not tear 

and that it fits easily through the hole in 

the fuel cell, it is necessary to cut and fold 

the electrode as shown here 

Carbon dioxide 

Methylene blue 

(oxidised) 

Cation exchange membrane 

Direction 

of ‘grain’ 

Scrap 

How the microbial fuel cell works 

In one chamber of the cell, yeast cells are fed on glucose solution. A 

mediator, methylene blue, enters the yeast cells and takes electrons from 

the yeast’s electron transport chain. The electrons are then passed to an 

electrode (anode). The electrons pass through the external circuit and are 

accepted by potassium hexacyanoferrate (III) in the second chamber of 

the cell. Hydrogen ions pass through a cation exchange membrane which 

separates the two chambers. 

Microbial fuel cells of this type typically generate 0.4-0.6 V and 3-50 mA. 

This is sufficient to power a very low-current motor. If several such cells are 

joined in series, it is possible to light a light-emitting diode (LED) 

Width of fuel 

cell chamber 

Cut about half-way through the upper piece as 

shown, then fold it in half, then half again to 

form a ‘tail’ on the electrode 

brane in distilled water for 24 h 

before use. 

Dried yeast can be rehydrated as 

the fuel cell is assembled, although it 

is important to add the dried yeast to 

buffer solution first, then to add glucose 

solution to the yeast slurry. If 

you try to rehydrate the yeast directly 

in glucose solution, osmotic effects 

will delay the process. (If using fresh 

yeast, simply make a thick slurry of 

that with the buffer solution before 

adding the glucose solution.) 

It takes about 30 min from the 

assembly of the fuel cell to the 

generation of electricity. 

Scope for open-ended 

investigations 

Several fuel cells may be joined 

together in series to give a greater 

voltage; the current produced will 

remain the same, however. 

Conversely, increasing the size of 

the cell (or the electrode area) will 

increase the current generated, but 

not the voltage. 

Different mediators and/or types of 

yeast, such as wine-makers’ or bakers’ 

yeast, may be used. Note that for safety 

reasons, the use of this fuel cell 

with other micro-organisms is not 

recommended. 

Investigate the effect of temperature 

on the action of the fuel cell (remember 

to consider what ‘controls’ are necessary 

when making comparisons of this type). 

Suppliers 

Microbial fuel cells suitable for 

school investigations as described 

here are available from the National 

Centre for Biotechnology Education 

(NCBE) at the University of Reading, 

UK w1 . 

For those who prefer to build their 

own fuel cells, following the instructions 

in this article, the cation exchange 

membrane and carbon-fibre tissue 

electrodes are also available from the 

NCBE. The cation exchange membrane 

can also be purchased from VWR w2 . 

Low-current motors suitable for use 

with a fuel cell such as the one 

described here are expensive and 

difficult to find. 

disposal of waste and recycling 

of materials 

Potassium hexacyanoferrate (III) 

solution is poisonous. Local regulations 

should be observed when disposing 

of used solution. 

Storage of materials 

The potassium hexacyanoferrate 

(III) solution is light-sensitive and 

should therefore be stored in a 

light-proof bottle or in a bottle 

wrapped in aluminium foil. It 

should not be kept for more than 

six months. 




Images courtesy of Dean Madden 

Hole through 

which chamber 

is filled 

Neoprene 

gasket 

Terminal of 

carbon fibre 

electrode 

The finished 

microbial 

fuel cell 

Cation exchange 

membrane 

Chamber glued to end 

plate with Superglue 

J-Cloth prevents 

electrode from 

touching membrane 

How to assemble a microbial 

fuel cell (the exact dimensions 

are unimportant – the one shown 

here is roughly 55 mm x 55 mm) 

You may wish to store the cation 

exchange membrane in a bottle of distilled 

water so that it is ready to use. 

The water should be replaced from 

time to time if the membrane is stored 

for an extended period. 

Dried yeast, even in a sealed container, 

has a limited shelf life. The 

supplier’s ‘best before’ date should 

therefore be observed. 


The microbial fuel cell was developed 

by Dr Peter Bennetto, formerly 

of the Department of Chemistry, 

King’s College, London, UK. It has 

been adapted for school use by John 

Schollar and Dean Madden. 


w1 – To learn more about the 

National Centre for Biotechnology 

Education (NCBE) and to order 

their fuel cells, see: www.ncbe.reading.ac.uk 

w2 – To contact VWR, the supplier of 

the cation exchange membrane, see: 

www.vwr.com 

Resources 

Bennetto P (1987) Microbes come to 

power. New Scientist 114: 36–40 

Bennetto HP (1990) Electricity generation 

by micro-organisms. BIO/technology 

Education 1: 163–168. This 

article can be downloaded from the 

NCBE website: 

www.ncbe.reading.ac.uk or here: 

http://tinyurl.com/ncf6ql 

Lovley DR (2006) Bug juice: harvesting 

electricity with micro-organisms. 

Nature Reviews Microbiology 4: 

497–508. doi:10.1038/nrmicro1442 

Sell D (2001) Bioelectrochemical fuel 

cells. In: Biotechnology. Volume 10: 

Special Processes (Second edition). 

Rehm H-J and Reed G (Eds). 

Frankfurt am Main, Germany: 

Wiley-VCH. ISBN: 9783527620937 

For a complete list of all teaching 

activities published in Science in 

School, see: 

www.scienceinschool.org/teaching 

Dr Dean Madden is a biologist 

working for the National Centre for 

Biotechnology Education (NCBE) w1 at 

the University of Reading, UK. The 

NCBE was established in 1984 and 

has since gained an international reputation 

for the development of innovative 

educational resources. Its materials 

have been translated into many 

languages including German, 

Swedish, French, Dutch and Danish. 


Public domain image; image source: Wikimedia Commons 

Bringing particle physics 

to life: build your own 

cloud chamber 

Alpha rays from a polonium source 

emit in a flower-like pattern at the 

centre of a continous cloud chamber. 

The particles are made visible 

by means of alcohol vapour diffusing 

from an area at room temperature 

to an area at -78 °C. This photograph 

was taken in 1957 

Particle physics is often seen as something only for huge research 

institutes, out of reach of the general public. Francisco Barradas- 

Solas and Paloma Alameda-Meléndez demonstrate how – with 

the aid of a homemade particle detector – you can dispel this 

myth by bringing particle physics to life in the classroom. 

The objective of elementary 

particle physics is to find the 

basic building blocks of which everything 

is made and to investigate the 

behaviour of these building blocks. 

Although it can be seen as a cornerstone 

of science, particle physics is 

often neglected or poorly understood 

in schools, partly because it is perceived 

as unrelated to the things with 

which we interact on a daily basis. 

However, particle physicists detect 

and measure electrons, photons or 

muons every day with the same confidence 

with which all of us ‘detect’ 

cows, tables or aeroplanes. 

Furthermore, particle detectors (e.g. 

PET scanners) are routinely used, for 




example, by medical physicists to 

detect tumours and monitor the function 

of internal organs. 

Here we demonstrate how to bring 

particle physics to life in the classroom, 

using possibly the simplest 

type of particle detector: a continuously 

sensitive diffusion cloud chamber. 

This homemade version consists 

simply of an airtight fish tank full of 

air and alcohol vapour, cooled to a 

very low temperature, which can be 

used to detect charged particles, particularly 

cosmic ray muons, if they 

have enough energy. 

Elementary particles 

Elementary particles are the simplest 

elements from which everything 

is made. They are not just the building 

blocks of matter and radiation, 

but also give rise to the interactions 

between them (for more details of elementary 

particles, see Landua & Rau, 

2008). These particles carry energy 

and momentum, and can thus be seen 

by detectors. Strictly speaking, you 

cannot directly see any particles – 

instead, their passage through detectors 

is inferred from the effects they 

cause, such as ionisation (for charged 

particles). That is precisely what we 

do when we observe the condensation 

trail left in the sky by an aeroplane that 

we cannot see – and what we can do 

with our homemade cloud chamber. 

The continuously sensitive 

diffusion cloud chamber 

This cloud chamber is basically an 

airtight container filled with a mixed 

atmosphere of air and alcohol vapour. 

Liquid alcohol evaporates from a 

reservoir and diffuses through the air 

from the top to the bottom of the 

chamber. Cooling the base with dry 

ice (solid carbon dioxide, which is at a 

constant temperature of around -79 ºC 

while it sublimates) results in a strong 

vertical temperature gradient, so that 

a zone with supersaturated alcohol 

vapour forms close to the bottom. 

This sensitive layer is unstable, with 

more very cold alcohol vapour than it 

can hold. The process of condensation 

of vapour into liquid can be triggered 

by the passage of a charged particle 

with enough energy to ionise atoms 

in its path. These ions are the condensation 

nuclei around which liquid 

droplets form to make a trail. 

Assembly and operation 

Materials 

· Straight-sided, clear plastic or glass 

container (e.g. a fish tank) with a 

base about 30 cm x 20 cm, and a 

height around 20 cm (other sizes 

can be used, but the effects may 

vary) 

· Aluminium sheet (about 1 mm 

thick, same thickness as the base 

of the fish tank) 

· Shallow tray somewhat larger than 

the base area of the fish tank 

Two lamps, one of them strong 

· Strip of felt (about 3 cm wide and 

long enough to wrap around the 

inside of the fish tank, e.g. somewhat 

more than 1 m long) 

Glue (not alcohol-soluble) 

Black insulating tape or duct tape 

Isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol) 

· Dry ice 

REvIEW 

Particle Physics 

alcohol reservoir 

track 

Outline of a continuously sensitive 

diffusion cloud chamber 

container 

charged particle 

tape 

diffusion 

sensitive layer 

dry ice at -80 ºC 

aluminium plate 

Fold tape and stick 

to the bottom 

Cross-section of the cloud chamber 

Cosmic rays consist of subatomic particles that come from space 

and strike Earth’s atmosphere, creating a shower of secondary particles 

that can be studied at the Earth’s surface. Students in secondary 

education can usually only read about those particles in books 

or study them through simulations – although the particles constantly 

pass through our bodies. 

Here, Francisco Barradas-Solas and Paloma Alameda-Meléndez 

present the idea that cloud chambers can be used by students as an 

experimental tool, enabling them to conduct their own investigations 

on radiation. They also provide details about the construction 

of a cloud chamber, equipment that can be built at school without 

too much difficulty, which enables students to observe these subatomic 

particles in the classroom by making their tracks visible. 

Vangelis Koltsakis, Greece 

Images courtesy of Francisco Barradas Solas 


Image prepared by Alberto Izquierdo; 

courtesy of Francisco Barradas Solas 

Image prepared by Alberto Izquierdo; courtesy of Francisco Barradas Solas 

Cosmic rays 

Felt pad soaked 

in alcohol 

The chamber 

Metal plate 

Insulating tape 

Dry ice 

Image courtesy of Bionerd; image source: Wikimedia Commons 

30 000 m 

20 000 m 

Secondary 

cosmic rays 

Concorde 

10 000 m 

Everest 

Tracks of ionising radiation in a cloud 

chamber (thick and short: alpha particles; 

long and thin: beta particles) 

Method 

1. Glue a strip of felt (the alcohol 

reservoir) around the insides at the 

bottom of the fish tank (the body of 

the cloud chamber). Some felt can 

be glued to the bottom of the tank, 

too. 

2. Cut the aluminium sheet to fit (as 

closely as possible) the top the fish 

tank, and cover one side of the 

sheet with insulating tape, forming 

a black surface. 

3. Soak the felt with isopropyl 

alcohol (but not so much that it 

drips down the sides of the 

chamber). 

Safety note: Do this in a well-ventilated 

room and remember that 

alcohol is flammable. 

4. Turn the fish tank upside-down 


over the aluminium sheet. Make 

sure the black side of the sheet 

faces upwards (to make the particle 

tracks more visible). 

5. Use insulating or duct tape to fasten 

the aluminium sheet to the rim 

of the fish tank, sealing the chamber 

so that it is airtight. This is the most 

critical step and must be carefully 

done, as the joint will become 

moist and very cold during 

operation. 

6. Make a flat layer of dry ice in the 

tray and place the chamber on top 

of it, making sure that its base is 

horizontal. To ensure good thermal 

contact between the metal plate and 

the dry ice, avoid large chunks of dry 

ice: flat sheets or dust are best, but 

small grains will do. 

Safety note: Dry ice is around -79 

ºC and should only be handled 

using thick gloves. 

7. Keep the top of the chamber warm, 

for example by shining a lamp onto 

it. Avoid using the chamber in a 

cold environment, because this 

could prevent the correct temperature 

gradient from forming, meaning 

no tracks can be seen. 

8. Leave the chamber undisturbed for 

about 10 min, until the temperature 

gradient is established. Shine a 

bright light through the chamber at 

a low angle, and look at the bottom 

of the chamber. At first you should 

see only an alcohol mist falling, but 

gradually, charged particle tracks 

should appear as thread-like condensation 

in the mist. Note: the tracks 

are more visible in a darkened room. 



Taken from the cloud chamber comic strip; image courtesy of Paloma Alameda-Meléndez 

The characters in this 

story: elementary and 

subatomic particles 

The muon is about to 

enter the chamber! 

The pion keeps on flying 

and, after a very 

short time, decays into 

a muon and a neutrino 

pion 

To begin at the beginning: 

once upon a time 

there was a proton... 

The proton enters 

Earth’s atmosphere 

and hits an atom, giving 

rise to new particles, 

including a pion 

neutrino 

muon 

The muon passes through 

the chamber, leaving – like 

a jet – a trail of droplets 

Although any charged particle with 

enough energy, for example from 

ambient radioactivity, can leave its 

trail in the chamber, the majority of 

the tracks will be made by secondary 

cosmic rays: particles created when 

other particles (mostly protons) 

coming from outer space hit the 

upper atmosphere. Secondary cosmic 

rays travel at close to the speed of 

light and are absorbed by the atmosphere 

or decay in flight, giving rise 

to new particles including muons, 

which can reach the surface of Earth 

and are easily detected. Muons are 

charged elementary particles very 

similar to electrons except for their 

mass (which is two hundred times 

larger). 

What you can do with the 

chamber? 

In order to make the chamber really 

useful, we cannot limit ourselves to 

showing it and describing how it 

works. To support the explanation, 

we have prepared a short, simply 

written comic strip w1 (see above), 

showing how the chamber works and 

illustrating the origin and composition 

of cosmic rays through the story 

of a cosmic proton and its descendants. 

We use this chamber at school with 

our 12- to 16-year-old students as part 

of an effort to help them see particles 

as real physical objects. Watching the 

visible trails left by invisible particles 

and comparing them to trails left by 

jet engines (in which much of the 

same physics is involved) is the first 

step in a process that we continue by 

introducing real data and pictures 

from high-energy physics into otherwise 

standard exercises and questions 

w2, w3 (Cid, 2005; Cid & Ramón, 2009) 

and that we conclude with another, 

more complicated, detector for school 

use: a cosmic-ray scintillation detector 

which allows students to record and 

study data by themselves (Barradas- 

Solas, 2007). 

Why not use the Science in School 

online discussion forum to exchange 

ideas about how to use the cloud 

chamber at school? See: www.scienceinschool.org/forum/ 

cloudchamber 


The authors would like to thank 

Dr Eleanor Hayes, Editor-in-Chief of 

Science in School, for her assistance in 

giving the final form to this article. 


References 

Barradas-Solas F (2007) Giving new life to old equipment. 

Physics Education 42: 9-11. doi: 10.1088/0031-9120/42/1/F03 

To access this article, which is freely available online, 

visit the website of the Institute of Technical Education, 

Madrid, Spain (http://palmera.pntic.mec.es) or use the 

direct link http://tinyurl.com/y8ssyc5 

Cid R (2005) Contextualized magnetism in secondary 

school: learning from the LHC (CERN). Physics Education 

40: 332-338. doi: 10.1088/0031-9120/40/4/002 

Cid X, Ramón C (2009) Taking energy to the physics 

classroom from the Large Hadron Collider at 

CERN. Physics Education 44: 78-83. 

doi: 10.1088/0031-9120/44/1/011 

Landua R, Rau M (2008) The LHC: a step closer to 

the Big Bang. Science in School 10: 26-33. www.scienceinschool.org/2008/issue10/lhcwhy 


w1 – The comic strip (in English and Spanish) and full 

assembly instructions (in Spanish) are available from our 

website: 

http://palmera.pntic.mec.es/~fbarrada/cc_supp_mat.html 

w2 – See, for instance, the introductory information about 

the LHC and simple physical calculations which take 

place in all particle accelerators (Physics at LHC) on the 

‘Taking a closer look at LHC’: http://www.lhc-closer.es 

w3 – The CERN website for high-school teachers 

(http://teachers.web.cern.ch) also includes a gallery of 

bubble chamber pictures which fits nicely into our project. 

See the direct link: http://tinyurl.com/yfbv8ls 

Resources 

For brief, simple overviews of particle physics aimed at 

the general public, see: 

Close FE (2004) Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction. 

Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780192804341 

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s online 

interactive tour, ‘The Particle Adventure: the 

Fundamentals of Matter and Force’: www.particleadventure.org 

The virtual visitor centre of the SLAC National 

Accelerator Laboratory (particularly the sections on 

theory, detectors and cosmic rays): 

www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc 

The CERN website: 

http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/Research/ 

Detector-en.html 

For a discussion of how some of the big questions in 

particle physics will be addressed by CERN’s Large 

Hadron Collider, see: 

Landua R (2008) The LHC: a look inside. Science in 

School 10: 34-47. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2008/issue10/lhchow 

For more detailed, yet accessible, introductions aimed at 

people with a scientific education and not afraid of a 

little mathematics, we recommend: 

Barnett RM et al. (2000) The Charm of Strange Quarks: 

Mysteries and Revolutions of Particle Physics. New York, 

NY, USA: AIP Press. ISBN: 0387988971 

Treiman SB (1999) The Odd Quantum. Princeton, NJ, 

USA: Princeton University Press. ISBN: 0691009260 

Treiman’s book is one of the best to begin tackling the 

subtleties of quantum mechanics in particle physics 

(which we have avoided in this article), including virtual 

and unstable particles, and the field/particle relationship. 

To learn more about cosmic rays, see NASA’s Cosmicopia: 

http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/cosmic.html 

We and many others have learned about building cloud 

chambers from Andy Foland’s cloud chamber page: 

www.lns.cornell.edu/~adf4/cloud.html 

The American Museum of Natural History’s website 

includes an illustrated version of the main stages of the 

assembly of the cloud chamber: www.amnh.org/education/resources/rfl/web/ 

einsteinguide/activities/cloud.html 

It is not easy to explain in detail the processes of supersaturation 

and track formation or to justify the choice of 

active liquid (isopropanol, in our case), as they depend 

in a complicated way on – for example – ionisation energies, 

vapour pressures, diffusion rates and various engineering 

aspects of the chamber. If you want to pursue 

this further, see the supplementary bibliography on our 

cloud chamber website: 

http://palmera.pntic.mec.es/~fbarrada/cc_supp_mat.html 

For a Science in School article describing how to measure 

radioactivity from radon in the home, see: 

Budinich M, Vascotto M (2010) The ‘Radon school survey’: 

measuring radioactivity at home. Science in School 

14: 54-57. www.scienceinschool.org/2010/issue14/radon 

If you enjoyed this and other teaching activities in this 

issue of Science in School, you might like to browse our 

collection of previously published teaching activities. 

See: www.scienceinschool.org/teaching 

Francisco Barradas-Solas has a degree in physics and 

teaches physics and chemistry at secondary school, 

although he is currently on leave, working as a scientific 

advisor to the regional education authority of Madrid, 

Spain. One of his main interests is the introduction of particle 

physics to schools and he has taken part in several 

programmes for teachers organised by CERN. 

Paloma Alameda-Meléndez has a degree in chemistry 

and teaches physics and chemistry at El Álamo Secondary 

School, near Madrid. 



Spectrometry at school: 

hands-on experiments 

nataša Gros, Tim Harrison, Irena Štrumbelj drusany and 

Alma kapun dolinar introduce a selection of experiments with 

a simple spectrometer designed especially for schools – and 

give details of how to perform one of the activities. 

To motivate school students 

through a hands-on approach to 

chemistry, we and our project partners 

developed a collection of experiments 

using small-scale, low-cost 

spectrometers. In the project, we used 

a simple school spectrometer developed 

by one of the partners (Nataša 

Gros). The spectrometer can be easily 

upgraded to form other analytical 

instruments, for example gas and liquid 

chromatographs, allowing a further 

range of school experiments (see 

the project website w1 ). Limited numbers 

of the instruments are available 

for loan to schools. 

How spectrometers work 

In a spectrometer, the white light 

from a light source (a bulb) enters a 

monochromator, from which only 

light of the chosen wavelength 

(colour) emerges; this then passes 

through a solution in the optical cell, 

or cuvette (see Figure 1). The solution 

absorbs a fraction of the light and a 

detector measures the resulting reduction 

in the light intensity (the 

absorbance). The deeper the colour of 

the solution, the higher the 

absorbance measurement. 

The most widely used cuvettes 

have an optical path length of 1 cm 

and require at least 3 ml of solution 

for a successful measurement. The 

main objective of a general-purpose 

spectrometer is accuracy and precision 

of absorbance measurement: the 

wavelength selection should be as 

accurate as possible and the light 

highly monochromatic (i.e., with a 

narrow range of wavelength). As a 

consequence, the construction of the 

instrument is complicated and not 

very obvious to a typical user – and 

the instrument itself is expensive. 

Instead, the main objective when 

developing the Spektra TM spectrometer 

was to produce a low-cost, 

Image courtesy of Maren Beßler / Pixelio 




Monochromator 

Detector 

Image courtesy of Nicola Graf 

Figure 1: The main components of a conventional spectrometer 

portable and robust instrument with a 

simple and intuitive design and operation, 

allowing for low reagent consumption 

and a simplified experimental 

approach (Gros, 2004). This 

spectrometer is primarily intended for 

educational purposes, especially for 

the introduction of concepts, but it 

has also proved useful for on-the-spot 

quantitative or semi-quantitative 

determinations of samples. 

Spektra comprises two optical elements: 

a tri-colour light emitting 

diode (LED) and a light sensor. Blue 

(430 nm), green (565 nm) or red (625 

nm) light can be selected; this passes 

directly through the liquid layer and 

strikes the sensor (see Figure 2). The 

most essential components (the light 

source, the measuring chamber and 

the sensor) are all visible: for students, 

the instrument is not a ‘black 

box’, but is easy to understand and 

operate (see Figures 3a and b). 

Reactions and measurements take 

place in polymeric supports called 

blisters (similar to the plastic packaging 

on tablets), which allow for small 

volumes (0.35 ml) of tested solutions, 

rapid homogenisation of reagents, 

REviEw 

Chemistry 

Biology 

Environmental science 

Optics 

Statistics 

Analytical chemistry relies extensively on spectrometric 

analysis, but professional instruments are expensive 

and thus not easily available for average schools in 

many countries. This article presents a spectrometer 

developed by one of the authors to make spectrometric 

analysis affordable to every secondary school. The 

project website details several school experiments in 

spectrometry, and the laboratory protocol for one 

experiment is included in the article. 

I would recommend this article for introducing analytical 

chemistry in science lessons (not only chemistry, 

but also biology and environmental science), particularly 

for secondary schools that do not have a wellequipped 

laboratory. The proposed approach is simple 

and friendly enough to encourage teachers and students 

to try the suggested experiments and to explore 

new ones. 

Teachers could use the article for a discussion of the 

methodology of spectrometry and the theory of spectrometric 

measurements. The experimental analysis 

provides the opportunity to analyse the obtained data 

mathematically, thus linking chemistry and statistics. 

The article could also be used for a comprehension 

exercise. For example: 

Given the procedure for making the calibration curve 

from the stock standard solution, complete the following 

table: 

Flask A B C D E 

Volume of standard 2 3 6 8 10 

glucose solution (ml) 

Volume of 98 97 94 

distilled water (ml) 

Glucose 0.3 1.2 1.5 

concentration (mg/ml) 

Giulia Realdon, Italy 


Image courtesy of Nataša Gros 

LED 

Sensor 

A 


Figure 2: Measuring chamber of the 

Spektra spectrometer 

and small volumes of chemical waste. 

Experimental work with Spektra is 

simple and safe, requiring no special 

laboratory training or laboratory 

glassware. The volumes of solutions 

needed are very small: even a dropbased 

experimental approach can be 

used where appropriate. 

The spectrometer can be purchased 

online w2 . Alternatively, the University 

of Bristol w3 , UK, offers a limited number 

of Spektra spectrometers for loan 

by teachers who wish to either try the 

experiments with their students or 

develop other practical investigations. 

For teachers who prefer a conventional 

instrument, Mystrica colorimeters 

(using normal, full-scale cuvettes) are 

also affordable and good quality w4 . 

Hands-on experiments in 

spectrometry 

As part of the project, a range of 

practical spectrometry activities was 

developed to raise interest in science, 

and to inspire potential future scientists 

amongst school students. These 

activities covered topics as varied as 

water analysis, the physics of light 

and colour, investigations into 

Lambert-Beer’s law, chemical equilibrium, 

environmental analysis, kinetics 

of chemical reactions and the analysis 

of food. 

The food analysis experiments 

cover the spectrometric determination 

of iron levels in samples of dried 

herbs or flour; alcohol content of spirits; 

glucose levels in jam; colour of 

Figure 3a: A prototype of the Spektra spectrometer. A: the LED light source; B: the 

measuring chamber; C: the measuring site with the sensor at the bottom 

C 

B 

Figure 3b: The final Spektra design. The instrument is more compact, but the three 

essential components (A: light source; B: measuring chamber; C: sensor) are still visible 

beer; colour (quality) of paprika; 

phosphate levels in apple juice; phosphates 

and nitrites in meat products; 

and casein concentration in cheese. 

Another protocol allows the process 

of alcohol fermentation to be monitored. 

The step-by-step instructions for 

determining the glucose level in jam 

are presented here; full details of all 

other experiments – including some 

A 

C 

B 

suitable for outreach events in primary 

schools – are available on the 

project website w1 . The website also has 

instructions for upgrading the Spektra 

instrument to a gas or liquid chromatograph, 

together with details of 

experiments that can be carried out 

with the upgraded equipment (see 

also Gros & Vrtačnik, 2005). 





Spectrometric determination of the glucose level in jam 

A number of reactions between sugars and other 

chemical reagents produce coloured products; the 

intensity of colour is related to the initial concentration 

of sugar. The absorbance of sample solutions can 

be measured and compared to the absorbance of 

standard solutions of known sugar concentrations. 

Only a limited number of colour-change reactions are 

known for polysaccharides, and most involve simple 

sugars, usually reducing sugars. 

Glucose determination was chosen primarily because 

students know what sugars are – the activity has widespread 

appeal. Furthermore, determining the sugar 

content of jams may have industrial applications in 

aspects such as quality control. 

One method to determine the sugar concentration of 

jam involves hydrolysing many of the non-reducing 

sugars (in jam, principally sucrose) to glucose, using 

sulphuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ), after which the sample is neutralised 

with sodium hydroxide (NaOH). When heated 

with 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid (DNSA; also known 

as 2-hydroxy-3,5-dinitrobenzoic acid), reducing sugars 

(e.g. glucose and fructose) produce a red-brown 

product. For more details of this reaction, see Miller 

(1959). 

The concentration of the coloured complex can be 

determined with the spectrometer using the blue LED 

(430 nm): the initial sugar concentration of the jam 

samples can then be read off a calibration curve created 

using known glucose concentrations. 

BACkGROund 

Reducing and non-reducing sugars 

In chemical terms, a reducing sugar is an 

aldose such as glucose, which has an aldehyde 

group that can be oxidised to a carboxylic acid. 

The more common chemical test to detect 

reducing sugars is to warm them with either 

Benedict’s or Fehling’s solutions, which contain 

copper(II) ions that are reduced to copper(I) 

oxide and can be observed as a brown-orange 

precipitate. 

Non-reducing sugars, such as sucrose, may 

have a ketone rather than an aldehyde functional 

group, which cannot reduce copper(II) 

ions. When treated with Benedict’s or Fehling’s 

solutions, non-reducing sugars produce no 

coloured precipitate. 

CLASSROOM ACTIvITy 

Equipment and reagents 

· Spektra spectrometer (or other 

spectrometer) 

· Cuvettes or blisters 

· Pipettes 

· 100 ml volumetric flasks 

· Conical flasks 

· Test tubes 

· Balance 

· Water bath 

· Funnel 

· Filter paper 

· Jam samples 

· DNSA reagent (3,5-dinitrosalicil 

acid) 

· Sulphuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) solution 

(approximately 2 mol/l) 

· Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) 

solution (w=10%) 

· Sodium potassium tartrate 

(NaK(CH 2 OH) 2 (COO) 2 .4H 2 O) 

· Glucose powder (C 6 H 12 O 6 ) 

Preparation of solutions 

dnSA reagent: To prepare the DNSA 

reagent, dissolve 10 g DNSA in 200 

ml NaOH solution (about 2 mol/l). 

Heat the solution and stir thoroughly. 

Dissolve 300 g sodium potassium tartrate 

in 500 ml distilled water to form 

a colour stabiliser. Combine the two 

solutions, stir well and top up to 1 l 

with distilled water. 

Jam (sugars): Weigh 1-2 g jam into a 

conical flask and add 10 ml sulphuric 

acid. Heat in a boiling water 

bath for 20 min, stirring periodically 

until hydrolysis is complete. Leave 

the sample to cool and carefully add 

12 ml sodium hydroxide. Stir and filter 

into a 100 ml volumetric flask, 

and top up to 100 ml with distilled 

water. Using a pipette, transfer 10 ml 

solution into another 100 ml volumetric 

flask and top up to 100 ml 

with distilled water to produce the 

test solution. Stir well. 

Jam (reducing sugars): Weigh 3.0 g 

jam into a conical flask, add 50 ml 

distilled water, heat and stir for 10 

min. Filter into a 100 ml volumetric 

flask, and top up to 100 ml with distilled 

water. Using a pipette, transfer 

10 ml solution into another 100 ml 

volumetric flask and top up to 100 ml 

with distilled water to produce the 

test solution. Stir well. 

Stock glucose solution (15 mg/ml): 

Place 1.5 g glucose in a 100 ml volumetric 

flask and top up to 100 ml 

with distilled water. Stir. 

Creating the calibration curve 

1. Mark five volumetric flasks (100 

ml) with the letters A–E. Into each 

labelled flask, pipette the volumes 

of standard glucose solution and 

distilled water specified in Table 1. 


Image courtesy of Irena Štrumbelj Drusany 

Flask A B C d E 

Volume of stock 

glucose solution (ml) 2 3 6 8 10 

Volume of distilled 

water (ml) 98 97 94 92 90 

Glucose concentration 

(mg/ml) 0.3 0.45 0.9 1.2 1.5 

Table 1: Preparing the standard glucose solutions 

2. Label and fill six test tubes as specified in Table 2. 

Sample number Blank 1 2 3 4 5 

Standard glucose 

solution (flask) N/A A B C D E 

Volume of standard 

glucose solution (ml) 0 1 1 1 1 1 

Volume of DNSA 

reagent (ml) 1 1 1 1 1 1 

Volume of distilled 

water (ml) 3 2 2 2 2 2 

Table 2: Preparing the solutions for the calibration curve 

3. Heat the test tubes and their contents in boiling water for 5 

min; the DNSA reagent will react with any sugar present, 

producing a red-brown product. 

4. Cool the test tubes, add 6 ml distilled water to each and 

shake well. 

5. Using the blue LED (430 mm) of the spectrometer, measure 

the transmittance of each solution. 

The readings from the Spektra instrument are transmittances 

expressed in percentages and should be divided by 100 to 

obtain the transmittance values used in the subsequent calculations. 

Transmittance is related to absorbance as described by the 

equation: A = –log T. See the second and third columns in Table 3. 

The image below shows the calibration solutions; even the 

blank (water and DNSA with no glucose) is an intense colour. It 

is therefore necessary to measure all the samples, including the 

blank, against distilled water. The glucose-specific absor bance 

of the samples is then calculated by subtracting the absorbance 

measurement of the blank from the absorbance measurement of 

the sample (see the fourth column of Table 3). 

Figure 4: The 

calibration 

solutions 

6. Plot glucose concentration against glucose-specific 

absorbance, as shown in Figure 5. 

Glucose Transmittance Absorbance Glucose-specific 

concentration (Spektra reading, (A) absorbance 

(mg/ml) T%) (A – A blank ) 

Glucose-specific absorbance (A-A blank ) 

0.3 

0.2 

0.1 

0 (Blank) 27.54 0.56 0 

0.3 23.44 0.63 0.07 

0.45 20.04 0.69 0.13 

0.9 18.21 0.74 0.18 

1.2 15.13 0.82 0.26 

1.5 14.45 0.84 0.28 

Table 3: Calibration curve – sample absorbance measurements of 

different concentrations of glucose solution 

0 

Glucose concentration 

0.25 0.5 0.75 1.0 1.25 1.5 2.0 

Figure 5: Sample calibration curve – glucose-specific absorbance 

against concentration of glucose 

Measuring the jam samples 

The jam samples should be treated similarly to the glucose 

solutions used for the calibration curve. 

1. For each jam to be tested, put 1 ml prepared jam sample 

(see ‘Preparation of solutions’) in a test tube and add 1 ml 

DNSA reagent and 2 ml distilled water. 

2. Heat the test tubes and their contents in boiling water for 

5 min; the DNSA reagent will react with any sugar present, 

producing a red-brown product. 

3. Cool the test tubes, add 6 ml distilled water to each and 

shake well. 

4. Using the blue LED (430 nm) of the spectrometer, measure 

the transmittance value (T%) of each jam sample. Divide by 

100 to obtain T, convert T to A using the equation A = –log T, 

and use that to calculate the glucose-specific absorbance 

(A – A blank ). 

Table 4 shows an example of the transmittance values obtained 

and the calculated glucose-specific absorbance of each sample. 




Sample Transmittance Absorbance Glucose specific 

(Spektra reading, (A) absorbance 

T%) (A – A blank ) 

1 18.6 0.73 0.17 

2 21.3 0.67 0.11 

Table 4: Sample results for jam samples 

5. Using your calibration curve, convert the absorbance 

measurements (A) into the concentrations of glucose 

(mg/ml) in your samples. 

Using the examples from Table 4, the glucose 

concentrations read off the calibration curve give: 

Sample 1: 0.8 mg/ml 

Sample 2: 0.5 mg/ml 

6. From the glucose concentrations, calculate the mass of 

glucose in a 1 g jam sample using the following equation: 

Mass glucose (g per 1g sample) = mass concentration (mg/ml) 

x 10 x 100 ml 

where 

mass concentration is the value read off the calibration curve 

10 is the dilution (see ‘Preparation of solutions’) 

100 ml is the volume of 1g of jam sample. 

In our example, 

Sample 1: mass glucose (g per 1g sample) = 

0.8 mg/ml x 10 x 100 ml = 0.8 g 

Sample 2: mass glucose (g per 1g sample) = 

0.5 mg/ml x 10 x 100 ml = 0.5 g. 

The calculations above assume that the initial jam sample 

was 1 g. If, for example, the sample had weighed 2 g, the figures 

above would need to be divided by 2 to get the mass of 

glucose in g per 1 g sample. 


The authors wish to thank the European Commission 

Directorate General for Education and Culture for the 

financial support of the Hands-on Approach to Analytical 

Chemistry for Vocational Schools II (AnalChemVoc II, 

LLP-LDV-TOI-2008-SI-15) project via the Leonardo da 

Vinci programme. 

References 

Gros N (2004) Spectrometer with microreaction chamber 

and tri-colour light emitting diode as a light source. 

Talanta 62: 143-150. doi:10.1016/S0039-9140(03)00420-X 

Gros N, Vrtačnik M (2005) A small-scale low-cost gas 

chromatograph. Journal of Chemical Education 82: 291-293. 

doi: 10.1021/ed082p291 

Miller GL (1959) Use of dinitrosalicylic acid reagent for 

determination of reducing sugar. Analytical Chemistry 

31: 426-428. 

This article is freely available from the website of the 

American Chemical Society. See: 

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ac60147a030 


w1 – For more information about the project, see: 

www.kii2.ntf.uni-lj.si/analchemvoc2/file.php/1 

/HTML/experiments.htm 

w2 – The Spektra instrument can be purchased from 

Laboratorijska tehnika Burnik: www.lt-burnik.si/ 

index.php?newlang=english 

w3 – The University of Bristol’s ChemLabS (www.chemlabs.bris.ac.uk) 

offers a limited number of Spektra spectrometers 

for loan by teachers who wish either to try out 

the experiments with their students or to develop other 

practical investigations. Interested teachers should contact 

Tim Harrison (t.g.harrison@bristol.ac.uk). 

w4 – For more details about Mystrica colorimeters, see: 

http://mystrica.com/Colorimeter.aspx. The website also 

describes a number of possible experiments; particularly 

good are those involving enzymes reactions. 

Resources 

If you enjoyed this and other teaching activities in this 

issue of Science in School, you might like to browse our 

collection of previously published teaching activities. See: 

www.scienceinschool.org/teaching 

Nataša Gros is associate professor in analytical chemistry 

at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Chemistry 

and Chemical Technology, Slovenia. 

Tim Harrison is the Bristol ChemLabS schoolteacher fellow 

at the University of Bristol, UK. He is also the university’s 

science communicator in residence, with a passion 

for promoting chemistry. 

Alma Kapun Dolinar and Irena Štrumbelj Drusany are 

high-school teachers at Biotehniški Izobraževalni Center 

Ljubljana (Centre for Biotechnical Education and Training 

Ljubljana) in Slovenia. 

Image courtesy of Cornerstone / Pixelio 


Images courtesy of Werner Stetzenbach 

Physics in kindergarten 

and primary school 

General Science 

Biology 

Physics 

Primary 


Werner and Gabriele 

Stetzenbach tell us 

how kindergarten 

and primary-school 

children discover 

the world of physics 

together with secondary-school 

students 

as their mentors. 

Why not try it in 

your school? 

REvIEW 

This is an innovative and stimulating way of introducing science 

to young children. The experiments are simple, yet effective 

enough to explain how the ear works. At a time when the 

use of earphones is increasing, one could use the project to 

highlight how the ear can easily be damaged and what happens 

in such cases. 

The article can be used by two separate audiences: the first are 

kindergarten and primary-school teachers. They can use the 

experiments detailed in this article and the additional activities 

developed by the project (available online) in their classroom. 

Some kindergarten and primary-school teachers may find it difficult 

because they do not have the necessary science background; 

this problem may be overcome through prior preparation, 

the help of a science specialist or the assistance of prepared 

secondary-school students, as in the presented project. 

Suggested background reading material can also be found in 

the ‘Resources’ section. 

For secondary-school science teachers, the article provides 

details of how to set up a similar project with their students. If 

secondary-school students are involved, then such a project 

can be very motivating for them and should also help them to 

grow into more responsible adults. 

The experiments are ideal to use for primary/kindergarten science, 

but may also be used in integrated/coordinated science. 

They are helpful for biology lessons to teach about the ear and 

hearing, and for physics lessons, to teach about the transmission 

of sound, the ear as a real-life application for the transmission 

of sound, or cleaning using ultrasound (jostling of dirt particles 

instead of the jelly babies). 

Paul Xuereb, Malta 



Projects in science education 

Setting up a similar project with your students 

BACkGROund 

Secondary-school students have a different perspective 

from teachers and educators, which can be very helpful 

when dealing with small children, as they can be 

easily accepted as ‘big brothers or sisters’. The secondary-school 

students involved in our project benefited a 

great deal from the experience: they learned to give 

presentations, became more self-confident and 

improved their organisational skills – all without the 

pressure of a standard classroom situation. 

Additionally, they got a first-hand insight into the work 

of teachers, educators, scientists and engineers. 

A team should consist of 4-5 secondary-school students 

and a supervising teacher. In an initial brainstorming 

session, let the students come up with their own ideas; 

this will motivate them to be very creative. They may 

find it helpful to consult books and websites of teaching 

activities. By letting each student work on a separate 

topic, students of different abilities can be 

involved. The teacher should moderate the meetings, 

provide the experimental materials and help to set up 

the experiments. 

To inspire fun and curiosity, experiments should be 

easy to set up and, ideally, should involve several senses 

at once. When the younger children are able to 

experiment by themselves, they often express and test 

their own ideas. 

It is important to contact potential project partners 

(kindergartens or primary schools) early on in the project. 

Whereas kindergartens tend to be open to many 

scientific subjects, the experiments for primary schools 

may need to fit the curriculum topics taught in science 

or nature lessons, if the subject exists. 

Ask the secondary-school students to present their projects 

to each other, to get suggestions for improvements 

from the whole team. Remember to test the experiments 

with children of the target age beforehand, to 

estimate the required time. Up to seven younger children 

is a good group size. In our experience, each 

activity takes about 25-60 minutes, although we did 

not set a time limit. 

The activities might take more time than expected, 

since children sometimes ask to repeat a section they 

particularly enjoyed. Keep in mind that young children 

enjoy being able to take small experiments home, or 

taking part in a small competition in which they can 

win prizes such as a jelly baby in an inflated balloon. 

Especially when experimenting themselves, primaryschool 

children had no trouble concentrating for up to 

two hours without a break. Before reorganising groups 

or starting a new experiment, hand out treats or drinks 

to mark the break. 

And don’t forget, if this is a new experience for everyone 

involved, there may be reservations on both sides 

(the kindergarten or primary school, and the secondary-school 

team). However, if you discuss potential 

issues during the preparatory phase, this should be easily 

overcome. 

Anumber of projects have 

emerged in recent years to 

foster the curiosity of children in 

kindergarten and primary school. In 

2001, we started one such initiative w1 

in Winnweiler, which has since been 

extended throughout Germany with 

the help of several sponsors. Together 

with Werner’s secondary-school 

students from the Wilhelm Erb 

Gymnasium w2 in Winnweiler, we 

developed physics teaching activities 

for children aged 4-10. With the secondary-school 

students as mentors, 

we went into kindergartens and primary 

schools and successfully ran 

experiments with the children on topics 

such as air, electricity, magnets, 

light, shadows, hearing, flotation and 

lightning. 

A collection of teaching activities, 

experiences and background information 

has been published in a Germanlanguage 

brochure (THINK ING, 

2007). Most of the experiments, as 

well as a general introduction to the 

project, are also available to be downloaded 

as English-language PDFs 

from the website of Science on Stage 

Germany w3 . Below are step-by-step 

instructions for a set of experiments 

on hearing, suitable for both kindergarten 

and primary-school children. 

The online PDFs also contain further 

experiments from this section. 


Attack on the eardrums 

The aim is for the pupils to understand the function 

and importance of the ear, so that they will turn their 

MP3 players down to prevent damage to their auditory 

systems. On a journey from a sound source to the 

inner ear, sound production and the anatomy of the 

ear are explained. 

Auditory walking tour 

Get the pupils to take a walk through the grounds of 

the school or kindergarten, once with and once without 

earplugs, to experience the loss of environmental 

impressions when they partially ‘switch off’ their hearing. 

They will also learn about the dangers that (partially) 

deaf people are exposed to. 

do we really hear everything? 

The human ear can perceive sounds with 20 to 20 000 

oscillations per second. The number of oscillations per 

second is called the frequency. As we get older, we 

lose the ability to hear very high frequencies. Dogs 

can hear sounds with up to 35 000 oscillations per 

second (35 kHz), bats even higher-frequency sounds. 

Use a normal whistle and a dog whistle for the children 

to compare. Typically, a dog whistle is within the 

range of 16-22 kHz, with only the frequencies below 

20 kHz audible to the human ear (and depending on 

the individual state of your hearing, you may not even 

hear these). 

Adjust the volume of a signal generator with amplifier 

and loudspeaker to a medium level at an audible frequency. 

Then turn up the frequency to 50 kHz, and 

slowly tune it down from there. Ask the first child who 

can hear something to describe the sound (a highpitched 

whistle). 

do our ears have favourite sounds? 

An individual auditory diagram 

By testing our own hearing range, we can estimate the 

state of our hearing. Connect a signal generator with 

an oscilloscope and loudspeaker as indicated (see 

image below). 

Using the signal generator, generate sounds between 

250 and 16 000 Hz according to Table 1. To make the 

sounds comparable, make sure that they all generate a 

‘wave line’ of equal ‘height’ on the oscilloscope. 

signal generator 

oscilloscope 


CLASSROOM ACTIvITy 

How do you Sound 1 Sound 2 Sound 3 Sound 4 Sound 5 Sound 6 Sound 7 

perceive the sound? 

very loud (10) 

loud (8) 

medium loud (5) 

quiet (3) 

very quiet (1) 

Table 1: individual auditory diagram 

16 000 Hz 8000 Hz 4000 Hz 2000 Hz 1000 Hz 500 Hz 250 Hz 




loud 

10 

8 

6 

4 

2 

0 

quiet 

2000 4000 6000 8000 f (Hz) 

auditory diagram girl 8 years 

Ask each child to complete the table (which can also be 

downloaded as a worksheet from the Science in School 

website w4 ), recording whether they experience each sound 

as being very loud, loud, medium loud, quiet or very quiet. 

This can be a little tricky. To make it easier, start with 16 000 

Hz and do pairwise comparisons between neighbouring frequencies 

to be measured, i.e. ‘How do you perceive the 

sound at 16 000 Hz? Now listen to the sound at 8000 Hz – 

how do you perceive it in comparison?’ And so on. 

Typically, the human ear is most sensitive to the frequencies 

at which we usually speak (about 200–3500 Hz). 

With the help of a secondary-school mentor (or teacher), 

each child should plot the perceived volume (e.g. loud = 8) 

against the frequency of the sound. 

It is useful to make the same measurements with adults (e.g. 

teachers or parents) as well, because as we age, we hear 

high-pitched sounds less well. You may notice this when the 

TV is on – young children may hear a high-pitched whistling 

noise whereas adults do not. 

How does sound reach the ear? The swinging 

candle 

Because sounds are transported by variations in air pressure, 

sound moves air particles. The movement of a candle flame 

is used to illustrate this. Sound with a low frequency can 

even blow out a candle flame. 

Materials 

· A CD player with a bass loudspeaker playing 

techno music 

A candle and matches 

A paper funnel 

A (bass) drum with a hole in the back 

· A signal generator with amplifier 

· A loudspeaker suitable for low frequencies 

(at least as low as 100 Hz) 

· Cables 

Procedure 

1. Place a burning candle in front of a CD player with a bass 

loudspeaker playing techno music. The flame will flicker 

in time with the music. If the effect is not very visible, use 

a paper funnel between the loudspeaker and the candle 

to enhance it. 

2. Place the burning candle in front of the hole at the back 

of a drum. Beat the drum on the other side and watch the 

flame move or be blown out. 

3. Using the cables, connect the loudspeaker to the signal 

generator and turn it to a low frequency (100 Hz). The 

candle will be blown out. To enhance the effect, you can 

use a paper funnel between the loudspeaker and the candle. 

What happens in the ear? 

Use a plastic or paper model (which may be homemade) of 

the ear to illustrate the different parts of the ear, which will 

be explained in the following experiments. 




The outer ear: the auricle and eardrum 

The auricle collects sound like a funnel. Use a paper funnel 

as an ear trumpet to improve hearing: whisper into it 

and see how it magnifies the sound. 

The outer ear acts like an organ pipe that is closed at one 

end, so that the air in it can vibrate. This vibration is passed 

on to the eardrum, a membrane that behaves like a drum, 

and then through mechanical linkage to the three ossicles 

(small bones). 

Materials 

A bass loudspeaker 

· A signal generator with 

amplifier or a CD player 

with amplifier 

Cables 

· Jelly babies 

Image courtesy of Werner 

Stetzenbach 

Procedure 

Using the cables, connect the bass loudspeaker to the signal 

generator or CD player. Place some jelly babies on the 

speaker. Watch them ‘dancing’ with the vibrations of the 

loudspeaker membrane, which represents the eardrum. 

The middle ear: the ossicles 

Materials 

Two tambourines 

A drumstick 

A table tennis or styrofoam ball tied to a string 

A baking tray 

A wooden mallet or similar wooden instrument 

A bowl 

Aluminium foil or cling film 

· Rice grains or sugar 

Procedure 

1. Hang the table tennis or styrofoam ball (representing the 

ossicles) in front of one of the tambourines, touching its 

surface (T2 in the image below). Beat the other tambourine 

(T1, the sound source) with the drumstick and 

watch the ball move, as the sound waves reach T2. 

T1 

T2 

2. Cover the bowl with foil or film pulled taut, and place 

rice grains or sugar on top. Hold the baking tray close, 

bang it with a mallet and watch the rice or sugar (representing 

the ossicles) jump. 

baking tray 


foil 

rice 

The inner ear: the cochlea 

There are auditory nerves in the hair cells of the cochlea. 

Sound (changes in air pressure) makes them move, which 

triggers information to be transmitted to the brain. The 

louder the sound, the more the hairs move. Very loud 

noises can even damage the hair cells. 

A glass tube is used as a model for an uncoiled cochlea. 

Cork dust or talcum powder inside the tube represents the 

hair cells. 

Materials 

A glass tube 

Cork dust or talcum powder 

Two stands (see image) 

A signal generator 

A loudspeaker 

· Cables 

Procedure 

Fill the bottom 

of the glass 

tube with cork 

dust or talcum 

powder and mount it horizontally on the stands. 

Using the cables, connect the loudspeaker to the signal 

generator and place it in front of one opening of the glass 

tube. 

Adjust the frequency of the sound (depending on the 

tube’s length) until the tube resonates (for any given 

length, there are multiple frequencies at which it will resonate), 

making the dust vibrate visibly. This represents the 

movement of the hair cells. 

Image courtesy of Werner Stetzenbach 




Reference 

THINK ING (2007) Physik in Kindergarten und 

Grundschule II. Köln, Germany: Deutscher 

Institutsverlag. ISBN: 9783602147816 


w1 – To learn more about the Germany-wide Physik in 

Kindergarten und Grundschule project, see: 

www.think-ing.de/index.php?node=1218 

w2 – For more information about 

the Wilhelm-Erb-Gymnasium Winnweiler, see: 

www.weg-winnweiler.de 

w3 – To download the materials in English, see: 

www.science-on-stage.de/index.php?p=3_15&l=en 

w4 –Table 1 can be downloaded as a Word document 

from the Science in School website: www.scienceinschool.org/repository/docs/issue14_kindergarten_wo 

rksheet.pdf 

w5 – Science on Stage brings together science teachers 

from across Europe to share best practice in science 

teaching. Originating in 2000 as Physics on Stage, it 

was broadened in 2003 to cover all sciences. Science on 

Stage Germany organises many activities for teachers 

both in and outside Germany, and currently hosts the 

Science on Stage Europe office. For more information, 

see: www.science-on-stage.de 

Resources 

‘Promenade ‘round the Cochlea’ is a regularly updated 

website providing background information and teaching 

suggestions on the auditory system. See: 

www.cochlea.org 

Skidmore University, NY, USA, provides a useful collection 

of links for teaching the ear and the auditory system: 

www.skidmore.edu/~hfoley/Perc9.htm#teach 

You can find a nice animation of the flow of sound 

waves through the ear here: 

www.sensory-systems.ethz.ch/Lectures/Auditory/ 

Auditory_Animations_1.htm 

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute website offers a 

report on recent research into our senses, including the 

quivering bundles that let us hear and how to locate a 

mouse by its sound. See: www.hhmi.org/senses 

The Neuroscience for Kids website explains how our 

sense of hearing works, and includes some experiments 

and teaching materials: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/bigear.html 

The ‘How the Body Works’ section of the About Kids 

Health (Trusted Answers from the Hospital for Sick 

Children) website has an explanation of the ear, 

including an interactive diagram of the auditory system. 

See: www.aboutkidshealth.ca or use the direct 

link http://tinyurl.com/yzzt5bv 

The website of the US education research organisation 

SEDL offers online lesson plans for teaching the five 

senses. See: www.sedl.org/scimath/pasopartners 

If you enjoyed this article, you might like to look at other 

teaching activities and articles suitable for primary school 

on the Science in School website. See: www.scienceinschool.org/primary 

Werner Stetzenbach has a physics degree and for the last 

33 years has taught physics at secondary school. At the 

Wilhelm Erb Gymnasium, he is the head of sixth form 

(Studiendirektor) and the school specialist on didactic questions. 

He is part of the ‘Physics in kindergarten and primary 

school’ working group of Science on Stage Germany w5 and 

has organised more than 25 training courses for educators 

and grammar-school teachers. He has also organised more 

than 50 workshops and training courses for physics teachers 

at secondary schools on the topic ‘Physics in daily life: 

low-cost, high-tech hands-on experiments’. 

Gabriele Stetzenbach is a medical assistant (Arzthelferin). 

Her role in the project was to make sure the experiments 

were appropriate for the target age and to help the secondary-school 

students with the practical setup. She also coordinated 

the collection of feedback on the project and 

played a major role in making sure the project would be 

expanded nationwide. 

Image courtesy of Werner Stetzenbach 


The ‘Radon school survey’: 

measuring radioactivity 

at home 

Marco Budinich and 

Massimo vascotto 

introduce a school 

project to measure 

radon levels in your 

own home. 

Figure 1: Raw CR39 

Image courtesy of the University of Trieste 

The simple word ‘radioactive’ 

evokes something both mysterious 

and scary, and few realize that, 

most of the time, radioactivity is a 

natural phenomenon we have to live 

with. Radon is a naturally occurring 

radioactive gas and is the most frequent 

cause of lung cancer after 

smoking, representing the form of 

radioactivity with highest social 

impact. 

Radon leaks out of rocks and, 

because it is a gas, mixes with the air 

we breathe. The higher its concentration, 

the more radioactivity we are 

exposed to. Radon concentration is 

quite erratic: one house may be filled 

with radon while the neighbouring 

houses have no detectable radon levels. 

Since radon comes mainly from 

rocks, its concentration is correlated 

with soil composition, water occurrence 

and, more generally, geology. 

Knowing how much radon we 

breathe at home is thus important for 

our health w1 . The ‘Radon school survey’ 

(RSS) project w2, w3 involves highschool 

students measuring radon concentration 

in their own homes. 

Normally, measuring radon 

requires equipment well beyond the 

budget of a school; instead, we used a 

simple, safe and robust method to 

produce meaningful results by detecting 

α-radioactivity from radon. The 

nucleus of a radon-222 atom decays 

into polonium-218, emitting a ‘heavy’ 

α-particle (a helium-4 nucleus). When 

the α-particle strikes a solid object, it 

causes local damage, as a bullet 

would to a wall: it leaves a little hole 

or nuclear track. Our ‘wall’ was a tiny 

plastic target; after exposing it to radiation, 

we could simply count the 

number of holes left by the α-particles, 

and from that information, calculate 

the average radon concentration 

during the exposure time. 

The plastic we used, CR39, (also 

known as PADC – poly allyl diglycol 

carbonate), was developed for the 

construction of aeroplane cockpits in 

World War II and is now used in 

unbreakable optical lenses, and also 

in nuclear physics to detect α-particles 

and neutrons. 

Materials 

· For each student, a CR39 radon 

dosimeter in a plastic screw-top 

box (see Figure 3). (See the list of 

suppliers for more information) 

· Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) 

· Distilled water 

· A water bath (or cheap 

thermos tatic fryer) 

· A microscope with micro camera 

(see ‘Suppliers’) 

Method 

1. To quantitatively measure the level 

of radon, leave the dosimeter for 

one to six months in the same 

place. The bedroom is a good 

choice to reflect our exposure to 

radon, as it is a place where we 

spend a lot of time. After that, the 

detector is ready to be analysed. 

To make the nuclear tracks left by 

the α-particles visible with a simple 

microscope, they must first be 

widened by chemical etching. 

2. Place the dosimeter in a beaker and 

cover it with a solution of 240 g 

sodium hydroxide per litre of dis- 




REvIEW 

This project shows how the teaching of radioactivity, which is usually 

a classroom-based topic, can be extended outside the school. 

Students test for the presence of radon in their own homes and 

then perform more thorough analyses in the school laboratory; the 

fact that they can in effect ‘see’ the radiation makes it less abstract. 

This will motivate the students to research the effects of radon and 

other sources of radiation, and to conduct careful analyses and 

detailed interpretation of the results. 

Most of the apparatus and materials indicated by the authors are 

commonly found in a science laboratory. This encourages teachers 

to try this project with their own students so that they can actually 

see the effects of radiation in their own homes. Such a project 

instils in students an investigative approach towards science. 

The article can be used in physics lessons to introduce the topic of 

radioactivity (types of radiation, background radiation, effects of 

radiation). It could also be used in chemistry (radioactive elements), 

geology (soil and rock properties) or advanced mathematics 

(exponential decay and the Poisson distribution) lessons. 

Moreover, being a rather sensitive topic, it can be extended to class 

discussions on how radioactivity can be used to serve humanity, 

and what can happen when radioactivity reaches alarming levels. 

Catherine Cutajar, Malta 

Images courtesy of the University of Trieste 

Figure 2: 

CR39 

dositometer 

Figure 3: 

CR39 inside 

the ‘exposure 

camera’ 

Figure 4: 

Microscope with 

micro camera 

tilled water. Heat at 80°C for at 

least 4 h. (If you are using a thermostatic 

fryer, test the water temperature 

first.) If you are preparing 

several dosimeters, use fresh sodium 

hydroxide solution for each 

one. 

Safety note: sodium hydroxide is 

corrosive, and must be handled 

with care. 

3. Leave the dosimeter to etch for 4 h, 

then rinse it well. The tracks are 

now about 10 mm in diameter and 

can be viewed with a microscope. 

4. Place the dosimeter under the 

microscope, take some pictures, 

and use them to count the nuclear 

tracks and to determine their average 

density (Figure 5). 

Radon concentration is calculated 

using the formula: 

Rn = D fc / Dt 

where 

Rn is the radon concentration 

(Bq/m 3 ) 

D is the track density (number of 

tracks/m 2 ) 

fc is the calibration factor (the den - 

sity of tracks corresponding to 

1 Bq/m 3 per exposure day; this 

information is provided by the 

manufacturer) 

Dt is the exposure time. 

Sample results 

The radon concentration found in 

our houses can vary by four orders of 

magnitude over the course of one day, 

and depends on many factors including 

weather, air circulation and pres- 

Table 1: Sample results from the RSS project 

sure, and other seasonal changes. 

What is important for health purposes, 

however, is the average radon concentration. 

For that reason, radon 

measurements are typically taken 

over long periods. 

Since the project began in 2003, 

some 2000 high-school students in 

Friuli Venezia-Giulia (north-east Italy) 

have taken part. Using calibrated 

CR39 dosimeters, we have performed 

four long-term surveys, some shortterm 

measurements and a few verifications 

of sites with high radon levels. 

Radon measurement Summer 2005 survey Winter 2007 survey 

(Bq/m 3 )(n=897) 

(n=860) 

Rn < 200 (limit for post- 89% (795) 70% (604) 

1990 buildings) 

200400 2% (22) 10% (88) 


The project is still continuing, and 

schools that carry out measurements 

are welcome to submit their data to 

our project. 

In the summer of 2005, 89% of the 

897 radon measurements made by the 

students were under 200 Bq/m 3 , i.e. 

below the limit that the European 

Commission recommends for new 

buildings (The Commission of the 

European Community, 1990). Only 2% 

(22 measurements) exceeded the limit 

of 400 Bq/m 3 recommended for pre- 

1990 buildings. Of those, 0.4% (4 

measurements) exceeded 1000 Bq/m 3 , 

with the highest measurement being 

5699 Bq/m 3 (see graph). 

In the winter of 2007, the 860 measurements 

were generally somewhat 

higher: 70% below 200 Bq/m 3 and a 

further 20% between 200 and 400 

Bq/m 3 . In this survey, 10% (88 measurements) 

exceeded the limit of 400 

Bq/m 3 . However, the highest measurement 

made was lower than that of 

summer 2005: only 3227 Bq/m 3 (see 

graph). 

In those cases where levels of radon 

above the limit were detected, the 

measurement was repeated, and if the 

levels were still too high, we recommended 

that the students contact the 

regional environmental protection 

agency, which could advise on how to 

keep radon out of the house. An 

example of a simple radon reduction 

method is to ventilate rooms. More 

labour-intensive methods include 

insulating the house from the ground. 

Suppliers 

CR39 can be bought from optical 

lens manufacturers or from suppliers 

of radon detectors w4 (see Figures 1 and 

2). Optical lens manufacturers sell the 

plastic material (CR39) cut into any 

shape (about €1), while the detector 

suppliers sell a calibrated, ready to 

use, CR39 radon dosimeter (about 

€7). One suggestion is to use the 

cheaper option for a yes/no measurement, 

reserving the more expensive 

detectors for places where radon has 

% 

40.0 

35.0 

30.0 

25.0 

20.0 

15.0 

10.0 

0.5 

0.0 

Bq/m 3 

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 5800 

% 

30.0 

25.0 

20.0 

15.0 

10.0 

0.5 

Measurements taken in the summer of 2005. n=897, 7 schools. Mean average 130, 

standard deviation 292, maximum 5699, minimum 0, median 87 

0.0 

Bq/m 3 

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 2800 2900 3000 3100 3200 

Measurements taken in the winter of 2007. n=860, 10 schools. Mean average 208, 

standard deviation 275, maximum 3227, minimum 0, median 140 

already been detected. 

We use a cheap Konus Academy 

microscope w5 (models 5304 & 5829) 

with a micro camera and the associated 

imaging software (see Figure 4). 


We would like to thank all students, 

teachers, school personnel and fami- 

Image courtesy of the University of Trieste 

Figure 5: Nuclear tracks 10x (holes marked with arrows) 

lies involved in the project and our 

collaboration partners, the local environment 

protection agency, ARPAF-VG w6 . 

We gratefully acknowledge the support 

of our sponsors w3 , Progetto 

Lauree Scientifiche, INFN and the 

Physics Department of the University 

of Trieste. 




BACkGROund 

The RSS project 

The RSS project is very multidisciplinary, involving 

not only physics but also chemistry, geology 

(for soil properties), mathematics (involving, for 

example, the exponential decay law and 

Poisson distribution of tracks), and social considerations 

(incidence of radon risks). 

The topic sheds some light on the ‘dark mysteries’ 

of radioactivity and is socially relevant, especially 

in a radon-prone area like our region; students 

and their parents are usually curious to know the 

radon level in their houses. So far, the project has 

involved almost 5000 people in our region – students, 

families, teachers and school personnel – 

making them aware of a health risk. 

Besides measuring radon, the other major goal 

of this project is to interest high-school students 

in science and scientific careers, by getting them 

to take part in a real scientific study, carrying out 

the measurements themselves. Students are 

made aware that we are surrounded by science 

and that it is possible to do serious science in 

everyday life, with simple equipment. 

The organisers of the project and many of the 

participants are now involved in a further project 

w7 – to investigate the levels of 137 caesium left 

in their region as a result of the Chernobyl accident 

in 1986. 

References 

The Commission of the European Community (1990) 

Commission Recommendation on the Protection of the Public 

against Indoor Exposure to Radon (90/143/Euratom). 

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/nuclear/radioprotection/ 

doc/legislation/90143_en.pdf 


w1 – For more information about radon, see the websites 

of the UK Health Protection Agency (www.hpa.org.uk), 

the US Environmental Protection Agency (www.epa.gov) 

and the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health 

(www.bag.admin.ch, in English, Italian, French and 

German). 

w2 – Further information about the RSS project and 

detailed protocols for both the measurements and data 

collection are available on the following websites. 

For a presentation about the project (in Italian), see: 

www.ts.infn.it/eventi/ComunicareFisica/presentazioni/vascotto.pdf 

For presentations about the project (in both English and 

Italian), see also the Fisica a Trieste website: 

http://physics.units.it/didattica03/orientamento/ 

laboratori.php 

w3 – The RSS project was funded by: 

Progetto Lauree Scientifiche, an Italian national project 

to disseminate scientific culture and raise interest in 

scientific disciplines and careers; see: www.progettolaureescientifiche.it 

INFN, the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics. 

See: www.infn.it 

The Physics Department of the University of Trieste; see: 

http://physics.units.it 

w4 – Suppliers of CR39 include: 

Intercast Europe (cheap CR39 without calibration): 

www.intercast.it 

FGM Ambiente (CR39 calibrated dosimeters): 

www.fgmambiente.it 

Radosys (CR39 calibrated dosimeters): 

www.radosys.com 

TASL (CR39 manufacturer): www.tasl.co.uk 

w5 – For more information about Konus (including their 

microscopes and micro cameras), see: www.konus.com 

w6 – ARPA-FVG is the regional environmental protection 

agency of Friuli Venezia Giulia. For more information, 

see: www.arpa.fvg.it 

w7 – For more information about the caesium project, see 

the (Italian) project web page 

(http://physics.units.it/didattica03/orientamento/laboratori.php#cesio) 

or contact Marco Budinich directly 

(marco.budinich@ts.infn.it) 

w8 – See Marco Budinich’s web page: 

wwwusers.ts.infn.it/~mbh/MBHgeneral.html 

Resources 

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like to read 

other articles on science education projects in Science in 

School. See: www.scienceinschool.org/projects 

Marco Budinich w8 is a physicist at the University of 

Trieste, Italy, where he is responsible for the outreach 

activities of the physics department. 

Massimo Vascotto, the project coordinator, has a degree 

in physics and teaches maritime disciplines (e.g. navigation, 

meteorology and oceanography) at a nautical high 

school (for trainee marines) in Trieste. He has collaborated 

for many years with the physics department at the 

University of Trieste and with INFN, the Italian National 

Institute for Nuclear Physics, where he is an associate 

physicist in science communication projects. 


Image courtesy of oversnap / iStockphoto 

Natural selection at the 

molecular level 

We know that particular genetic sequences can help us to 

survive in our environment – this is the basis of evolution. But 

demonstrating which genetic sequences are beneficial and 

how they help us to survive is not easy – especially in wild 

populations. Jarek Bryk describes some relevant recent research. 

When humans first left Africa 

some 150 000 years ago, settling 

in the valleys of the Tigris and 

Euphrates, sailing between the islands 

of Indonesia and trekking over the 

Bering Strait to America, they encountered 

many challenges. Coming from 

hot, dry African savannahs, the populations 

had to adapt to the local conditions, 

and over generations their 

physiology and appearance changed 

accordingly (Harris & Meyer, 2008). 

People’s skin became paler after they 

had lived in less sunny regions 

(Lamason et al., 2005). Populations 

whose members drank milk from 

domesticated animals retained the 

ability to digest lactose into adulthood, 

a feature lost soon after infancy 

among non-milk-drinking groups 

(Tishkoff et al., 2007). Populations that 

ate starch-rich food produced more 

salivary amylase, the enzyme that 

helps to break down starch (Perry et 

al., 2007). 

At least some of these changes are 

thought to have been a consequence 

of positive selection (see glossary for all 

italicised terms). This implies that in a 

particular environment (the selection 

pressure) in the past, individuals that 

happened to have an advantageous 

DNA sequence survived and left 

more offspring than individuals with 

a different, less beneficial, sequence. 

Today, using the genomic sequences 

of many species, including humans 

and their closest evolutionary relatives, 

scientists can compare traits and 

DNA sequences from populations or 

species with different lifestyles and 

from different environments to identify 

which sequences may have played 

a role in the adaptations. This, in turn, 

allows researchers to investigate the 

function of a DNA sequence and its 

potential adaptive value for an organism. 

Some of the genes known to affect 

skin colour in humans show a specific 

geographic pattern of sequence variation; 

in particular, sequence comparisons 

between European and African 

populations suggest that variation in 

skin colour is due to positive selection. 

Lightness of skin positively correlates 

with increasing latitude, and 

several hypotheses have been proposed 

to explain its potentially 

advantageous effects. One hypothesis, 

which states that light skin favours 

the production of vitamin D, is supported 

by observations that darkskinned 

people living at high latitudes 

suffer from vitamin D deficiency. 

Furthermore, light skin is more 

sensitive to the harmful effects of sunlight: 

greater exposure to sunlight correlates 

with increased incidence of 

skin cancer in pale-skinned people. 

Therefore, pale skin in human populations 

living at higher latitudes may 

be an evolutionary compromise 

between protection from the carcinogenic 

effects of sunlight and allowing 




Image courtesy of Avsa; image source: Wikimedia Commons 

170-130 

70-60 

50-40 

35-25 

15-12 

9-7 

World map 

of human migrations, 

with the North Pole 

at the centre. Africa, the start of the migration, 

is at the top left, and South America at the 

far right. Migration patterns are based on studies of 

mitochondrial (matrilinear) DNA. 

Numbers represent thousand years before present. 

The blue line represents the area covered in ice or 

tundra during the last great ice age. 

The letters are the mitochondrial DNA haplogroups 

(pure maternal lineages); Haplogroups can be used to 

define genetic populations and are often geographically 

oriented. 

For example, the following are common divisions for 

mtDNA haplogroups: African: L, L1, L2, L3, L3; Near 

Eastern: J, N; Southern European: J, K; General 

European: H, V; Northern European: T, U, X; Asian: A, 

B, C, D, E, F, G (note: M is composed of C, D, E, and 

G); Native American: A, B, C, D, and sometimes X 


of JBryson / iStockphoto 

sufficient production of an essential 

vitamin. 

Although this is a solid hypothesis, 

the evidence behind it is indirect. 

A direct demonstration of 

the adaptive value of this trait 

would require measuring 

whether, at higher latitudes, 

individuals with paler skin show 

improved survival and reproduction. 

Such demonstrations in our 

species, however, are difficult: 

survival experiments (in which 

individuals with different traits 

are exposed to an environment 

to see which survive) cannot 

REvIEW 

The article describes a range of interesting examples of 

evolutionary adaptations at the molecular level in 

humans. The difficulty in elucidating causal relationships 

between adaptive DNA sequences and individual 

fitness in humans and the need to use other experimental 

organisms are highlighted. 

The article provides excellent material for comprehension 

questions focusing on the understanding of natural 

selection and fitness in humans and experimental 

organisms. For example: 

1. Explain the processes involved in natural selection. 

2. What do you understand by the term ‘fitness’? 

3. Explain how the sickle-cell allele confers a selective 

advantage in some human populations. 

4. What are the problems associated with establishing 

causal relationships between adaptive DNA 

sequences and fitness in humans? 

5. Construct a flow chart to explain the adaptive 

value of coat colour in Oldfield mice. 

6. How were the scientists able to correlate genetic 

changes in Staphylococcus aureus with bacterial 

growth and antibiotic responsiveness? 

This article also enables students to research the link 

between DNA, amino acid sequence, protein structure 

and function in sickle-cell anaemia. The text is suitable 

for directing discussion in the classroom on the methods 

and problems associated with investigating the 

molecular basis of evolutionary relationships and the 

ethics of genetic testing in human populations. 

Interdisciplinary studies could be organised around the 

history of science and evolutionary population 

genetics. 

Mary Brenan, UK 


e performed on humans, and our 

long generation time makes it difficult 

to investigate differences in reproductive 

rates. The circumstances in which 

it is possible to observe the adaptive 

value of any trait in humans are 

therefore very limited — but they do 

exist. 

One example involves two diseases: 

sickle-cell anaemia and malaria. The 

gene involved in sickle-cell anaemia 

has two variants, or alleles: a ‘normal’ 

allele and a sickle-cell allele. 

Individuals with two sickle-cell 

alleles suffer from serious sickle-cell 

anaemia, whereas those with one 

sickle-cell and one normal allele do 

not exhibit such severe symptoms. 

Mortality data suggest that the sicklecell 

allele can, however, be advantageous: 

in populations exposed to the 

malaria parasite, individuals carrying 

one sickle-cell allele and one normal 

allele are more likely to survive than 

people carrying two normal alleles, 

because the parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) 

requires healthy blood cells to 

invade and multiply. Therefore, the 

frequency of the allele that causes 

sickle-cell anaemia increases in malaria-exposed 

groups – the allele is adaptive 

in this environment. 

Another example demonstrating the 

adaptive value of a human trait concerns 

a fragment of chromosome 17, 

known to have been inverted in our 

ancestors more than three million 

years ago (Stefansson et al., 2005). The 

fact that this variant spread across 

European populations suggests that it 

has been positively selected for – it 

has conferred an advantage on individuals 

that carry it. By genotyping 

almost 30 000 Icelanders, scientists 

investigating the hypothesis were able 

to determine that over the last 80 

years, individuals who carried the 

sequence variant had on average 3.2% 

more offspring per generation than 

individuals with the normal 

sequence, a plausible explanation of 

how the variant came to spread so 

rapidly. 

Image courtesy of Anthony Allison; image source: Wikimedia Commons 

Comparison of the distribution of malaria (left) and sickle-cell anaemia (right) in Africa 

BACkGROund 

Glossary 

Adaptive value: a trait has an adaptive value if it enables an individual 

to survive and reproduce better in a given environment than individuals 

that do not possess this trait. More formally, a trait is regarded 

as adaptive if it increases fitness. 

Allele: a variant of a gene. 

Fitness: a hard-to-define formal term from evolutionary biology and 

population genetics; it describes the average number of offspring over 

one generation that are associated with one genotype compared to 

another genotype in a population. Thus genotypes that produce more 

offspring have greater fitness. For a good overview of fitness and genotype, 

see Wikipedia w1 . 

Genome: the total DNA of an organism. This is usually understood to 

be the nuclear DNA, as opposed to mitochondrial or plastid DNA. For 

further information, see ‘What is a genome’ on the US National 

Library of Medicine website w2 . 

Positive selection: natural selection is one of the mechanisms of evolution; 

it describes the different survival and reproduction of individuals 

in a given environment. Natural selection is called ‘positive’ 

when it promotes certain traits that help individuals who have them, 

to survive and reproduce better than others. 

Selection pressure: a feature of the environment (e.g. temperature; 

presence of parasites; predation or aggression from members of the 

same species) that imposes differential survival and reproduction of 

individuals. 

Trait: one or a set of features of an organism’s characteristics (e.g. 

height; resistance to antibiotics; ability to see colours or to roll one’s 

tongue). 

20% 

15-20% 

1-10% 

1% 





of Hugh Sturrock 

/ Wellcome Images 

Although the two examples clearly 

demonstrate the recent action of positive 

selection in humans, the molecular 

mechanisms of how the sequence 

variations confer their advantages are 

not well understood and must be 

investigated on a case-by-case basis. 

To elucidate the causal relationships 

between putatively adaptive DNA 

sequences and an individual’s fitness, 

scientists turn to organisms that are 

easier to experiment on than humans. 

For instance, coat colour in the 

Oldfield mouse, Peromyscus polionotus, 

matches the soil of the habitat, providing 

camouflage. Mice living on the 

pale sands of Florida beaches are 

much lighter than inland-living mice 

of the same species. The adaptive 

value of this trait was demonstrated 

experimentally more than 30 years 

ago: mice with a coat that matched 

the soil colour were eaten less frequently 

by owls than the other, less 

camouflaged mice. However, scientists 

have only recently identified the 

genetic loci behind this adaptive trait 

(Hoekstra et al., 2006): variation in 

coat colour largely depends on different 

alleles of the McR1 gene. The protein 

encoded by this gene acts as a 

biochemical switch driving the production 

of either eumelanin, a dark 

pigment in the skin, or pheomelanin, 

a light pigment. The different alleles 

of the McR1 gene activate the pigment-producing 

pathway to a different 

extent, favouring the production 

of one pigment or the other. 

Another example of a demonstrated 

causal relationship involves 

Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium that 

can cause various diseases including 

pneumonia or heart valve inflammation. 

In a rare natural experiment, a 

patient with recurrent S. aureus infections 

was treated for three months 

with vancomycin, one of the few 

antibiotics that are still effective 

against S. aureus. Before and at intervals 

throughout the treatment, scientists 

collected samples (isolates) of the 

pathogen and sequenced the entire 

Image courtesy of EM Unit, UCL Medical 

School, Royal Free Campus / Wellcome Images 

genome of the first and last isolates. 

When they compared the three million 

base pairs (the ‘letters’ of the 

genetic code) that constitute this bacterium’s 

DNA, they found only 35 

differences between the first and last 

isolates. By partially sequencing the 

intermediate isolates, the scientists 

then worked out the order in which 

these changes must have occurred. By 

testing the bacterial resistance to vancomycin 

in vitro in the different isolates, 

they were able to correlate particular 

genetic changes with effects on 

the bacteria’s growth and response to 

the drug. For instance, the first and 

second isolates of bacteria differed by 

six nucleotide substitutions (changes 

to the ‘letters’) in two genes. 

These six mutations alone 

were clearly advantageous: 

they increased 

the bacterium’s tolerance 

to vancomycin 

fourfold, 

allowing 

bacteria carrying 

these mutations 

to survive and 

reproduce better, 

becoming more 

common in the 

patient’s body. 

Twenty-six subsequent 

mutations over the following 

weeks of treatment doubled 

the tolerance, effectively producing a 

vancomycin-tolerant strain of S. 

aureus (Mwangi et al., 2007). 

A mosquito 

with its 

abdomen full 

of blood. This 

species, 

Anopheles 

stephensi, is the 

insect vector that 

transmits malaria in 

India and Pakistan 

Scanning electron microscope 

image of sickle-cell and other red 

blood cells 

In short, investigating the molecular 

basis of adaptive evolution in wild 

populations is not easy. The challenges 

include defining the selective 

pressures, identifying the DNA 

sequences behind the associated 

traits, measuring individuals’ fitness, 

and finding mechanistic explanations 

for how the sequence changes influence 

the adaptive traits. However, 

with the use of model organisms and 

recent technological developments, 

these investigations are now becoming 

feasible, increasing our understanding 

of how specific changes at 

the genetic level allow organisms to 

adapt to their environment. 

Image 

courtesy 

of Annie Cavanagh 

Scanning electron micrograph of clusters 

of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus 

aureus bacteria 

/ Wellcome Images 



The author is grateful to David Hughes, Mehmet Somel 

and Ania Lorenc for helpful comments on the article. 

References 

Harris EE, Meyer D (2006) The molecular signature of 

selection underlying human adaptations. American 

Journal of Physical Anthropology 131(S43): 89-130. doi: 

10.1002/ajpa.20518 

This article provides a good overview of research into 

molecular evolution in humans. 

Hoekstra H et al. (2006) A single amino acid mutation contributes 

to adaptive beach mouse color pattern. Science 

313: 101-104. doi: 10.1126/science.1126121 

This and other papers on mouse coat coloration by Hopi 

Hoekstra’s research group are available on the Harvard 

University website. See: www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/hoekstra/Links/ 

PublicationsPage.html 

See also the follow-up paper in which the discovery of 

Agouti, a negative regulator of McR1 contributing to 

adaptive coat colour in Peromyscus, is described: 

Steiner CC, Weber JN, Hoekstra HE (2007) Adaptive 

variation in beach mice produced by two interacting 

pigmentation genes. PLoS Biology 5: e219. doi: 0.1371/ 

journal.pbio.0050219 

This and all other articles in PLoS Biology are freely 

available online. 

The following article reviews the adaptive pigmentation 

of vertebrates: 

Hoekstra HE (2006) Genetics, development and evolution 

of adaptive pigmentation in vertebrates. Heredity 97: 

222-234. doi: 10.1038/sj.hdy.6800861 

This article is freely available to download from the 

Heredity journal website: www.nature.com/hdy 

An overview of Hopi Hoekstra’s latest research is 

available on John Hawks’ blog: 

http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/evolution/ 

selection/hoekstra-2009-adaptive-pigmentation.html 

Lamason RL et al. (2005) SLC24A5, a putative cation 

exchanger, affects pigmentation in zebrafish and 

humans. Science 310: 1782-1786. doi: 10.1126/ 

science.1116238 

Mwangi MM et al. (2007) Tracking the in vivo evolution of 

multidrug resistance in Staphylococcus aureus by wholegenome 

sequencing. Proceedings of the National Academy 

of Sciences of the United States of America 104: 9451-9456. 

doi: 10.1073/pnas.0609839104 

Perry GH et al. (2007) Diet and the evolution of human 

amylase gene copy number variation. Nature Genetics 39: 

1256-1260. doi: 10.1038/ng2123 

See also the overview of this research at Panda’s Thumb: 

http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2008/12/ 

amylase-and-hum.html 

Stefansson H et al. (2005) A common inversion under 

selection in Europeans. Nature Genetics 37: 129-137. doi: 

10.1038/ng1508 

See also overview of the paper at Evolgen: http://evolgen.blogspot.com/2005/02/ 

human-inversion-under-selection.html 

Tishkoff SA et al. (2006) Convergent adaptation of human 

lactase persistence in Africa and Europe. Nature Genetics 

39: 31-40. doi: 10.1038/ng1946 

See also an overview of this research in The New York 

Times: www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/science/ 

10cnd-evolve.html?_r=1 


w1 – For a good overview of the terms ‘fitness’ and 

‘genotype’, see Wikipedia: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitness_(biology) and 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genotype 

w2 – For more information about genomes and the 

Human Genome Project, see ‘What is a genome’ on the 

US National Library of Medicine website: 

http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/hgp/genome 

Resources 

If you found this article interesting, you may like to read 

some other Science in School articles about evolution: 

Haubold B (2010) Review of Why Evolution is True. 

Science in School 14. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2010/issue14/evotrue 

Leigh V (2008). Interview with Steve Jones: the threat of 

creationism. Science in School 9: 9-17. www.scienceinschool.org/2008/issue9/stevejones 

Patterson L (2010) Getting ahead in evolution. Science in 

School 14: 16-20. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2010/issue14/amphioxus 

Pongsophon P, Roadrangka V and Campbell A (2007) 

Counting Buttons: demonstrating the Hardy-Weinberg 

principle. Science in School 6: 30-35. www.scienceinschool.org/2007/issue6/hardyweinberg 

For more information about malaria, see: 

Hodge R (2006) Fighting malaria on a new front. Science 

in School 1: 72-75. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2006/issue1/malaria 

To learn more about the structure of starch, which salivary 

amylase helps to break down, see: 

Cornuéjols D (2010) Starch: a structural mystery. Science 

in School 14: 22-27. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2010/issue14/starch 

Jarek Bryk is a post-doctoral researcher at the Max 

Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön, 

Germany, where he tries to find and analyse adaptive 

genes in mice. 





Chemistry 

and light 

Peter douglas and Mike Garley 

investigate how chemistry and light 

interact in many aspects of our 

everyday life. 

Image courtesy of BlackJack3D / iStockphoto 

Since time immemorial we have 

used the Sun’s rays to warm ourselves 

during the day and the glow of 

a flame to light up our world at night. 

Today, we control the inter-conversion 

of energy to make light from electricity, 

heat and chemical reactions; in our 

daily lives, we use chemistry and 

light in communication, electronics, 

medicine and entertainment; and 

photochemists are working for a 

cleaner, brighter future by devising 

new methods to convert sunlight into 

useful energy and to remove pollutants 

photochemically. 

Making light: lamps, lasers, LEds 

and liquid light 

The essential component in the 

process of making light is the interconversion 

of energy. Different types 

of lamps and lighting devices convert 

energy in different ways and with differing 

efficiencies. 

In the tungsten lamp, electrical 

energy heats a filament to a white-hot 

glow; thus, thermal energy is converted 

into light energy. Light emission 

from the solid filament is a continuum 

and gives a visible spectrum, 

much like a rainbow. Unfortunately 

REvIEW 

Physics 

Chemistry 

There is more to light than 

what we can see. The use 

of light is found in every 

aspect of science, from 

the brightening of the dark 

to the breakdown of plastic. 

This article gives an 

overview of the practical 

uses of light and makes 

interesting background 

reading for students 

researching light as a form 

of energy. 

Andrew Galea, Malta 

Image courtesy of mipokcik / iStockphoto 

Fluorescent lamps 

the efficiency with which electrical 

energy is converted to visible light 

energy is only about 5-10%. 

In the fluorescent lamp, electrical 

energy is converted into atomic excitation 

energy in the vapour of mercury 

atoms inside a tube. In this case, 

the energy conversion efficiency is 

about twice that of a tungsten bulb at 


Science in School Issue 14 : Spring 2010 

63

The laser used in a CD player 

Image courtesy of Petrovich9 / iStockphoto 

around 20%. However, the spectrum 

of light emitted by these lamps (when 

the electrons return to their non-excited 

state) is not continuous; instead, 

light is emitted at specific wavelengths 

and colours corresponding to 

the electrical energy levels of the mercury 

atoms. Household fluorescent 

tubes, therefore, have a coating of 

white phosphor inside to convert this 

light emission into a more continuous 

spectrum. Replacing the mercury 

vapour with other gases, such as neon 

(which gives an orange light) or other 

inert gases, allows the production of 

many different coloured fluorescent 

lamps, used for luminous displays 

and signs (see image on page 63). 

Different phosphor coatings also 

change the colour of the light from 

the lamp. 

Electrical energy can be converted 

still more efficiently into light by 

light-emitting diodes (LEDs); electricity 

excites electrons in specially 

designed semiconductor (see glossary 

for all italicised terms) layered structures 

to produce visible light, with a 

conversion efficiency of up to 35%. 

Electroluminescent paper uses the same 

principle. Many lasers also use electrical 

energy to generate high-intensity 

laser light, which can be collected into 

a very narrow, intense beam. Highpower 

lasers can cut metal or can 

even be used as light scalpels in surgery. 

Lasers are also used in communications 

and digital technology in 

barcode readers and optical disc readers. 

‘Liquid light’ relies on a different 

kind of energy conversion – chemiluminescence 

– to produce a cold light 

Image courtesy of NEUROtiker; image source: Wikimedia Commons 

Electrical Energy 

Thermal Energy 

Glow-worm 


Flourescent lamps 

LEDs 

Lasers 

Chemical Energy 

Light energy 

Chemiluminescent light sticks 

Deep-sea fish 

Glow-worms 

Hot bodies 

Tungsten lamps 

Energy conversion: sources of light 

through chemical reactions rather 

than thermal energy. This is how 

chemiluminescent light sticks work. 

In nature, glow worms and creatures 

that live in the darkness of caves or 

the deep sea use chemiluminescence 

for inter- and intra-species signalling. 

Photochemistry: fluorescence, 

plastics, photography and 

medicine 

One type of light emission – fluorescence 

– is used in optical brighteners 




in washing powders. They absorb the small 

amount of invisible UV light in the Sun’s spectrum, 

and re-emit it as blue light, making 

clothes look ‘whiter than white’. Fluorescence 

is also used in the security markings on banknotes, 

while phosphorescence (similar to fluorescence 

but with a longer life) is used in safety 

signs. Fluorescence, phosphorescence and 

chemiluminescence are also used in novelty 

items such as luminous body paint, hair gel, 

lipstick and jewellery. 

Light can be used to make plastics. Plastics 

are made by polymerisation – the joining 

together of lots of small molecules (monomers) 

to give one long molecule (a polymer). This 

process often needs something with enough 

energy to start the process going, although 

once started, the energy released in the joiningup 

step is usually enough to keep the process 


The saprobe Panellus 

stipticus displaying 

chemiluminescence 

going. When light is absorbed by a molecule, 

that molecule becomes more energetic because 

of the energy of the photon it has absorbed; 

we say the molecule has been excited. These 

excited-state molecules are excellent polymerisation 

initiators because of this extra energy – 

thus light can be used to convert liquid 

monomers into a solid plastic. This process 

called photopolymerisation gives us dental glues 

that harden under UV light (see image on 

page 66), as well as photo-curing paints which 

are used to print images onto a wide variety of 

substrates – soft-drink cans for example. 

BACkGROund 

Glossary 

Chemiluminescence: The generation of light directly from 

a chemical reaction, e.g. the light from glow-worms and 

chemiluminescent light sticks. 

Electroluminescence: The direct generation of light from 

electricity, e.g. in the display screens of mobile phones. 

Fluorescence: The emission of light associated with the 

transition of an electron from an excited state to a lowerenergy 

state during which an electron does not have to 

change its spin. Because of this, the light emission happens 

very quickly after excitation, usually within a few 

nanoseconds. Thus if the excitation source is removed, 

fluorescence stops within a few nanoseconds. 

Luminescence: A general term for the emission of light. 

Phosphorescence: The emission of light associated with 

the transition from an excited state to a state of lower 

energy where an electron does have to change its spin. 

This allows the light emission to occur more slowly, 

sometimes over a timescale of seconds in molecules and 

often longer in solid-state phosphors. Thus if the excitation 

source is removed, phosphorescence can sometimes 

still be seen, e.g. ‘glow in the dark’ stickers or the afterglow 

from the phosphor on a fluorescent tube which can 

be seen immediately after the light has been switched off 

(i.e. once the fluorescence has stopped). 

Photodynamic therapy: A medical procedure in which 

light is used to destroy tumours in cancer treatment. 

Photopolymerisation: The process by which light is used 

to create a polymer from monomeric molecules. 

Photopolymerisation is used to set photo-curing paints, 

inks and glues. Photo-curing glues are commonly used in 

dentistry. 

Semiconductor: For the purposes of this article, the 

important feature of a semiconductor is the arrangement 

of electronic energy levels into two ‘bands’: a full lowenergy 

‘valence band’ and an empty high-energy ‘conduction 

band’. Excitation promotes an electron from the 

valence band into the conduction band, leaving behind a 

‘hole’. Both the hole and the electron are mobile and can 

migrate to the semiconductor surface where they can act 

as oxidant and reductant, respectively, in the destruction 

of pollutants. 


Image courtesy of dem10 / iStockphoto 

Image courtesy of Peter Douglas 

Photopolymerisation is used in dentistry 

Dr Douglas and his glass baby ‘Bili 

Rubin’, show how light is used in the 

cure for jaundice 

Unlike conventional paints, a photocuring 

paint is set by light rather than 

by heat and/or air oxidation. 

Photographic film relies on the 

photochemical properties of silver 

halides. When a grain of silver halide 

on a film absorbs a photon of light, an 

atom of silver is made. The film is 

then chemically processed, and the 

metallic silver grains comprise the 

black part of a black and white negative. 

The best known use of photochemistry 

in medicine is the treatment of 

jaundice, a build-up in the body of a 

yellow, fat-soluble, neurotoxic substance 

called bilirubin. Bilirubin is 

generated constantly as a by-product 

of haemolysis (the breakdown of red 

blood cells), but it is normally 

metabolised in the liver into a watersoluble 

form that is subsequently 

excreted. If, however, the liver is damaged 

or not fully formed, the uncontrolled 

build-up of bilirubin can be 

fatal. Exposure to blue light cures 

jaundice through a photochemical 

transformation that converts bilirubin 

into a water-soluble form, allowing its 

excretion. Hospital wards for prema- 

The London International Youth Science Forum 

BACkGROund 

The basis of this article was a demonstration lecture by 

Dr Peter Douglas and Dr Mike Garley on the use of 

chemistry and light in our everyday lives. The lecture 

was part of the London International Youth Science 

Forum 2009 and was attended by 250 students from 40 

countries. 

At the London International Youth Science Forum 2010, 

Dr Douglas will explore future developments in science 

with leading scientists, dignitaries and industry pioneers. 

A key element of the programme is the opportunity 

to visit industrial sites, research centres, scientific 

institutions and organisations, including world-class 

research institutions and laboratories. For further details 

on how school students can participate, see: 

www.liysf.org.uk 





Electrical Energy 

Thermal Energy 

Image 

courtesy 

of Geckly / iStockphoto 

Solar cells 

Light energy 

Passive solar heating 

Chemical Energy 

Photosynthesis 

Solar water-splitting 

Energy conversion: 

applications of light 

ture babies – who are particularly 

prone to jaundice – have cots with 

special lights for the treatment of 

jaundice. 

Another medical application for 

photochemistry is the use of photodynamic 

therapy to fight cancer. A highly 

coloured compound with a particular 

Image courtesy of the London International Youth Science Forum 

photochemistry is injected directly 

into a tumour. This compound preferentially 

adsorbs to cancer cells rather 

than to normal cells and, when irradiated 

with light from a laser or other 

source, forms excited-state molecules 

that react with oxygen to generate 

chemicals that are lethal to cancer cells. 

The participants of the 

London International 

Youth Science Forum 

Clean energy, clean planet 

The world’s energy demands are 

increasing whereas its non-renewable 

supplies are limited. One way to 

address this problem is by using less 

energy (e.g. with energy-saving light 

bulbs). Another way is to exploit 

renewable sources of energy such as 

the silicon solar cell, which converts 

light energy into electricity. The original 

single-crystal cells, developed in 

the 1950s to power satellites, were 

very expensive. Now, much cheaper 

polycrystalline and amorphous silicon 

cells are commonly used in powering 

items such as calculators and battery 

chargers, as well as in larger-scale 

domestic, industrial and even national 

energy installations. In the classroom, 

the conversion of sunlight into 

electricity can be observed in a 

Grätzel cell, which employs artificial 

photosynthesis using natural dyes 

found, for example, in cherries (see 

Shallcross et al., 2009). 

Another real problem for the future 

is the need for a clean transportable 

fuel. Hydrogen can be generated indi- 


ectly from solar energy through the 

electrolysis of water, but this reaction 

is wasteful in energy terms. Thus, a 

great deal of research currently focuses 

on splitting water into hydrogen 

and oxygen directly using sunlight. 

How else can chemistry and light 

contribute to a clean planet? Titanium 

dioxide (TiO 2 ) is a semiconductor 

with some interesting photochemical 

properties. It is used as a white pigment 

because it scatters visible light 

effectively. It also absorbs UV light. 

When used as pigment or as a UV 

absorber in sunscreens, each particle 

is coated with silica to prevent the 

bare TiO 2 surface from coming into 

contact with its environment. This is 

necessary because when irradiated 

with UV light, TiO 2 particles generate 

very reactive chemical species which 

will destroy any complex molecules 

next to them. This apparent disadvantage 

of bare TiO 2 is now put to great 

use in the destruction of pollutants 

because when bare titanium dioxide 

is irradiated with UV light in solution, 

it completely destroys any 

organic compounds close to its surface. 

As a result, any organic pollutants 

present are completely mineralised 

to carbon dioxide, water, and 

ammonium and chloride ions. 

Titanium dioxide sample 

These examples illustrate that 

chemistry and light are all around 

us – they are an important part of 

our technological world, and have 

an important role in our cleaner, 

brighter future! 


Reference 

Shallcross D et al. (2009) Looking to the heavens: climate 

change experiments. Science in School 12: 34-39. www.scienceinschool.org/2009/issue12/climate 

Resources 

For a comparison of the spectra of different light sources – 

and instructions for building your own spectrometer, 

see: 

Westra MT (2007) A fresh look at light: build your own 

spectrometer. Science in School 4: 30-34. www.scienceinschool.org/2007/issue4/spectrometer 

For a full list of Science in School articles about energy, see: 

www.scienceinschool.org/energy 

Dr Peter Douglas is a senior lecturer in chemistry in the 

School of Engineering at Swansea University, UK. After 

postgraduate studies with Nobel Prizewinner George 

Porter at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Peter 

worked for Kodak Ltd, then joined Swansea University. 

His research interests lie in applied physical chemistry and 

photochemistry. 

Dr Mike Garley recently retired from his position as senior 

experimental officer in the chemistry department at 

Swansea University. A physical scientist by training, he 

was a research assistant with British Steel, then a part-time 

lecturer in physics at Swansea Institute before 

joining Swansea University. 

Committed to sharing their enthusiasm for the wonder 

of science with young people and the general public, Peter 

Douglas and Mike Garley regularly give their demonstration 

lecture “Chemistry and Light” at venues across the 

UK and Europe. 



Publisher: EIROforum, 

www.eiroforum.org 

Editor-in-Chief: Dr Eleanor Hayes, 

European Molecular Biology 

Laboratory, Germany 

Editor: Dr Marlene Rau, 



Editorial Board: 

Dr Giovanna Cicognani, Institut Laue 

Langevin, France 

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Synchrotron Radiation Facility, France 

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the Netherlands 

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Switzerland 

Russ Hodge, Max Delbrück Zentrum, 

Germany 

Dr Rolf Landua, European Organization 

for Nuclear Research (CERN), 

Switzerland 

Dr Dean Madden, National Centre for 

Biotechnology Education, University of 

Reading, UK 

Dr Douglas Pierce-Price, European 

Southern Observatory, Germany 

Lena Raditsch, European Molecular 

Biology Laboratory, Germany 

Dr Fernand Wagner, European 

Association for Astronomy Education, 

Luxembourg 

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Elektronen-Synchrotron, Germany 

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Development Agreement, UK 

Copy Editor: Dr Caroline Hadley 

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Email: nicolagraf@t-online.de 

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ISSn 

Print version: 1818-0353 

Online version: 1818-0361 

Cover Images: 

Hypselodoris bullocki, a large nudibranch 

Image courtesy of Jeffrey Jeffords 

(www.divegallery.com) 

Model of a linear accelerator at CERN 


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Juggling careers: 

science and teaching 

in Germany 

Image courtesy of Wolfgang Herzberg 

Jörg Gutschank tells 

vienna Leigh how his 

circus skills inspired 

him to take up teaching 

and saw him through 

his training – and how 

they help in the 

classroom. 

When you’re a teacher, it helps 

to have a cool hobby. One 

friend of mine, a geography teacher, 

spends her weekends as a resident DJ 

in a nightclub – and needless to say, 

she never gets accused of being over 

the hill. Nothing demands instant 

awe and respect like the discovery 

that a teacher has a secret exciting 

life going on after hours. 

That’s something that Jörg 

Gutschank knows all about, too. 

When he’s not teaching physics, 

mathematics and computer science at 

a German secondary school, the 

Leibniz-Gymnasium w1 , you’ll find him 

juggling, riding a unicycle or even 

performing daredevil stunts on a flying 

trapeze! 

“Juggling, cabaret and circus skills 

have always been a hobby of mine, 

even when I was studying physics – 

or maybe because of that,” says Jörg, 

who started teaching in secondary 

school in 2004. “During my PhD a 

friend and I had the idea to combine 

our hobbies with our profession – we 

were both physicists – and in 1999 we 

were inspired when we saw an advertisement 

for a festival called ‘Physics 

on Stage’ w2 being held at the European 

Organization for Nuclear Research 

[CERN] in Geneva.” 

Jörg and his friend, Marcus Weber 

(né Hienz), decided to develop a 

physics show to contribute to the 

REvIEW 

Physics 

This article offers an interesting 

view of the odd 

routes people may take 

into teaching. It has given 

me ideas for working with 

our dance and sports 

departments to illustrate 

some applications of 

physics. I particularly like 

Jörg’s emphasis of the 

importance of the question, 

not the answer. 

Devon Masarati, UK 



Teacher profile 

four-day festival, which was being 

held for the first time in November 

2000 and comprised presentations, 

performances and workshops from 

physics educators and scientists from 

22 countries. “We were thrilled that 

our show, ‘A top, a buoy and a pingpong 

ball’, was selected for an onstage 

performance at the festival,” 

says Jörg. “It was an interactive show 

involving experiments on angular 

momentum, aerodynamics and buoyant 

forces.” 

From that moment, the pair spent 

days and nights preparing the show. 

“We wrote a script and hired a professional 

director for our rehearsals,” 

remembers Jörg. “We bought equipment, 

planned and built experiments, 

and our preparations were even 

recorded by journalists for a television 

broadcast!” 

The final test was the dress rehearsal 

at the University of Dortmund, 

after which they had to pack all the 

equipment and send it to CERN for 

the big event. “This first Physics on 

Stage festival was a great and inspiring 

experience,” says Jörg. “I met 

many teachers who were eager to 

exchange their wonderful ideas about 

teaching and about physics.” 

The show was so successful that 

Jörg and Marcus went on to found 

Physikanten & Co w3 , a company 

which produces and performs physics 

shows at science festivals, museums 

and schools and for companies all 

over Europe. Themes such as the 

greenhouse effect, acoustics, electricity 

and fire are brought to life with 

props, costumes and special effects. 

The performances are a mix of comedy, 

spectacular experiments and audience 

participation. Physikanten have 

appeared several times on German 

TV and in 2008 performed their 

biggest show ever, an open-air event 

at the Paul Scherrer Institut near 

Zürich. 

While Marcus stayed to run the 

company, Jörg was inspired to follow 

Jörg Gutschank with his magic 

boxes, as a ‘professor’ in the 

Physikanten physics shows 

a different path. “After three brilliant 

years I decided that I really wanted to 

be a teacher, because I wanted to 

carry on working with people and do 

something useful for society, and so I 

applied for a scheme ‘Seiteneinstieg’, 

which allows scientists to move into 

teacher training,” he says. 

As well as his core subjects, Jörg 

now teaches science and robotics at 

his school, a German upper secondary 

school or Gymnasium. “Personally, 

I prefer to decide what I teach. For 

this reason I prefer my new subjects 

to the traditional subjects, physics and 

mathematics, since there are no official 

curricula for science and robotics,” 

he says. “It’s great to have this 

freedom of choice and I tend to pass it 

on to my students by having them 

Images courtesy of Jörg Gutschank 

Image courtesy of Wolfgang Herzberg 

choose the details of what they want 

to do. That’s only possible in subjects 

without an official curriculum.” 

This means that Jörg and his colleagues 

have the chance to set up and 

plan special projects, which is where 

his creative edge comes in useful 

again. “My first project was about 

toys, and it was great fun to combine 

my ideas with those of my 5th and 

6th year pupils [aged 10-12],” he says. 

“We built little rockets, a boat with a 

steam engine, and a geyser. Some 

pupils wanted their hamster to produce 

electricity with a generator from 

a bicycle – but for the sake of the 

hamster, we had only one short session 

of five minutes doing that! 

“In another project, the children 

had to find out things about their 

www.scienceinschool.org Science in School Issue 14 : Spring 2010

ody. They answered questions such 

as why we need two eyes, by playing 

with a ball and closing one eye. This 

way the pupils could see the difference 

between trying to catch with one 

eye or with two.” 

Teaching these subjects is made 

possible due to the special profile of 

the school, which offers additional 

bilingual and scientific tuition and 

which, from this term onwards, is an 

IB world school. “This means we’ll 

also be teaching the International 

Baccalaureate diploma programme in 

addition to the German leaving certificate 

[Abitur],” says Jörg. “Since 

we’re only just starting, we’ll be able 

to teach very small groups, which I 

prefer. I’ll be giving a physics course 

to only five students – four of whom 

are female, incidentally – and I’m 

looking forward to teaching such a 

small group.” 

Although such working conditions 

are to be envied, Jörg agrees that there 

are some very particular challenges 

still to be overcome in teaching science. 

“I think it’s most important that 

we don’t give the impression that science 

is something finished which has 

to be learnt by heart, but that it’s 

something which is evolving and 

which needs constant questioning,” 

he says. “This can only work when 

the teacher admits to the students that 

he doesn’t know everything and that 

the point is not to know but to question, 

and to look for ways to solve 

problems. Involving everyday things 

and demonstrating the science behind 

students’ day-to-day lives is a great 

way of inspiring minds that ask questions 

about everything. 

Images courtesy of Wolfgang Herzberg 

“A positive feeling towards science 

comes, I think, from this impulse to 

ask questions – an impulse which is 

inspired by the teacher. Career decisions 

are influenced by the attitude 

towards the subject and the teacher, 

so a positive feeling and a good relationship 

makes it more likely that a 

student will decide to pursue a scientific 

career.” 


w1 – The website of the Leibnitz Gymnasium is: 

www.leibniz-gym.de 

w2 – In 2005, the Physics on Stage science teaching festival 

was extended to Science on Stage. The sister project of 

Science in School, Science on Stage, was organised by the 

seven research organisations of EIROforum (www.eiroforum.org) 

and supported by the European 

Commission. The project has now developed further 

into Science on Stage Europe. For more information, see: 

www.scienceonstage.net and www.scienceonstage.eu 

w3 – To learn more about the Physikanten & Co, see: 

www.physikanten.de 

Resources 

For more information about Jörg, see his website: 

www.school.gutschank.eu 

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like to read 

other teacher profiles in Science in School. See: www.scienceinschool.org/teachers 

Vienna Leigh studied linguistics at the University of 

York, UK, and has a master’s degree in contemporary literature. 

As well as spending several years as a journalist 

in London, she has worked in travel and reference publishing 

as a writer, editor and designer. She’s been widening 

her scientific horizons in recent years as the information 

and publications officer at the European Molecular 

Biology Laboratory and as editor of its newsletter, 

EMBL&cetera. 




A scientific mind 

Lucy Patterson talks to Yasemin Koc from the British Council 

about scientific thinking as a versatile tool for life. 

“ 

The beauty of science is that it can 

be applied to any field,” explains 

Yasemin Koc, a young scientist with a 

wealth of varied career experience 

behind her. “It teaches a certain analytical 

way of thinking. A problem is 

broken down into pieces and examined 

from a number of different 

angles. It helps you to understand 

certain things better. It can be a tool, 

like another language.” It’s a tool that 

Yasemin has put to very good use, 

through her undergraduate and PhD 

studies, as a business analyst for the 

international bank JP Morgan, and 

now as the advisor for science communication 

and innovation to the 

British Council, based in London, UK. 

The foundation for Yasemin’s interest 

in science was laid in school. “I 

became interested in chemistry at 

grammar school when our teacher 

told us that he would be collecting 

our notebooks to rate them. I panicked 

and ended up rewriting the 

whole thing. By the end I understood 

so much that I got full marks in all 

my chemistry exams. 

“In addition to chemistry, volleyball 

was my big passion (I had played for 

several different teams in Schwaig 

near Nürnberg, Germany), and it definitely 

helped that the coach was my 

chemistry teacher!” 

Yasemin feels like a European: she 

was born in Nuremberg, has a 

German passport, and went to school 

in the area. When she was 18, however, 

her family, of Turkish roots, moved 

to Istanbul where she graduated from 

a German school two years later. 

The first of her passions then took 

Image courtesy of Joss / iStockphoto and enot-poloskun / iStockphoto 

REvIEW 

Why should young people 

pursue a career in science? 

Is a scientific mind 

useful in management? 

How can a scientific 

career help a career in 

business? 

Too few school students 

consider studying science 

– most think that science 

studies are difficult and 

that, at the end, there 

would be few career 

opportunities. However, 

“The beauty of science is 

that it can be applied to 

any field” are Yasemin 

Koc’s magic words – 

words that might motivate 

students to enter science. 

Alessandro Iscra, Italy 


Images courtesy of Yasemin Koc 

Yasemin (second from the right) 

as a panel speaker on the Arab 

science and technology strategy 

at a conference in Cairo, Egypt 

Yasemin fencing 

her to the Vienna University of 

Technology w1 , Austria, to study physical 

and analytical chemistry, 

and across the Atlantic for a master’s 

degree at MIT w2 in Boston, USA, 

analysing synthetic spider silk in a 

materials lab. Her next stop was 

London, UK, where she did a fiveyear 

PhD in nanotechnology at 

Imperial College w3 (to take nanotechnology 

to the classroom, see Harrison, 

2006, and Mallmann, 2008). “At the 

time, in 2003, nanotechnology was the 

hottest science field to enter. I contacted 

professor Andreas Manz, a pioneer 

in the field, and started my project in 

his lab soon after.” 

Yasemin developed a diagnostic 

tool, the top-secret details of which 

are now patented by the American 

company that funded her research 

(Benninger et al., 2006). The handheld 

device (similar to an airport metal 

detector) uses microfluidics nanotechnology 

to detect a disease in the saliva 

of an infected person: the person 

being tested spits on the device, 

which returns a result in less than one 

minute. 

After completing her PhD, Yasemin 

decided to change tack a little, becoming 

a business analyst for JP 

Morgan w4 . There, she used her problem-solving 

skills as a scientist to 

analyse businesses – how they are 

organised, how they communicate 

and how they handle data – and tried 

to find ways to make them more efficient. 

“Banks love taking on scientists 

since they have the ability to think 

analytically. You present them with a 

problem, they divide it into its individual 

components, investigate where 

the problem might lie, and find an 

efficient solution.” 

One year later, Yasemin was again 

ready for a new challenge. Her current 

job is the advisor for science 

communication and innovation to the 

British Council w5 , an international cultural 

relations organisation promoting 

British culture and education opportunities 

globally. As part of the science 

team, Yasemin works on several 

programmes designed to build 

collaborations with and between scientists, 

and to encourage discussion 

and exchange between science and 

society. 

“I find my job immensely inspiring, 

as its main purpose is to connect: we 

connect the scientists with each other, 

scientists with policymakers, scientists 

with society. We want to enable 

scientists to make a real change.” 

How does Yasemin spend a typical 

day? This turned out to be a question 

that she happily found somewhat difficult 

to answer: “A day-to-day 

description of my job would be difficult 

because it varies so much – which 

is basically what makes my job so 

amazing! One day I might attend a 

meeting with the Royal Society w6 to 

discuss a series of science policy seminars 

we are planning to run. For 

example, at the moment I am working 

with our South African offices on a 

science policy seminar discussing 

food, bringing together scientists, policy 

makers, students and people from 




the street to discuss the issues of food 

in modern times. 

“Last week I had a meeting with 

the Norwegian Academy of Sciences 

and Letters w7 about our round of 

debates on the relationship between 

science and society, bringing together 

politicians from Norway and the UK, 

scientists and other critical minds. A 

few weeks ago, I attended a breakfast 

Church of Our Lady clock in Nuremberg, 

Germany 

The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey 

meeting at the House of Lords [the 

upper house of the British parliament] 

on nanotechnology. 

“The situations I experience in this 

job can be just mind-blowing. I meet 

science ministers, members of 

Parliament, famous researchers, 

famous thinkers, journalists…but the 

most exciting part of my work is creating 

the connection between scientists 

and non-scientists by understanding 

the scientific world.” 

Could this be something for you, 

too? Here’s Yasemin’s recommendation 

if you’re interested in a job like 

hers: “Anyone who has done a scientific 

degree and believes in the connection 

of science and other disciplines 

should apply for a job like 

this!” 

The Houses of Parliament and Big 

Ben at night, London, UK 

Image courtesy of bcphotobiz / iStockphoto 

Image courtesy of damircudic / iStockphoto 

Image courtesy of compassandcamera / iStockphoto 



w1 – To learn more about the Vienna University of 

Technology (Technische Universität Wien), see: 

www.tuwien.ac.at 

w2 – For more information on the Massachussetts 

Institute of Technology (MIT), see: http://web.mit.edu 

w3 – You can find out more about Imperial College 

London on their website: www3.imperial.ac.uk 

w4 – To find out more about JP Morgan, see: www.jpmorgan.com 

w5 – Learn more about the British Council, including 

information and help for teachers interested in including 

an international perspective in their class or school: 

www.britishcouncil.org 

w6 – The Royal Society is the UK’s national academy of 

science. See: www.royalsoc.ac.uk 

w7 – To learn more about the Norwegian Academy of 

Sciences and Letters (Norske Videnskaps-Akademi), see: 

www.dnva.no 

References 

Benninger RKP et al. (2006) Quantitative 3D mapping of 

fluidic temperatures within microchannel networks 

using fluorescence lifetime imaging. Analytical 

Chemistry 78: 2272–2278. doi: 10.1021/ac051990f 

Harrison T (2006) Review of Nano: the Next Dimension 

and Nanotechnology. Science in School 1: 86. www.scienceinschool.org/2006/issue1/nano 

Mallmann M (2008) Nanotechnology in school. Science 

in School 10: 70-75. www.scienceinschool.org/2008/ 

issue10/nanotechnology 

Resources 

To learn about the careers of other young scientists, see 

the scientist profiles previously published in Science in 

School: www.scienceinschool.org/scientists 

Lucy Patterson finished her PhD at the University of 

Nottingham, UK, in 2005, and has since been working as 

a postdoctoral researcher, first in Oxford, UK, then in 

Freiburg and Cologne, Germany. During this time she has 

worked on answering several different questions in 

developmental biology, the study of how organisms grow 

and develop from a fertilised egg into a mature adult, 

using zebrafish embryos. She has a broad interest and 

enthusiasm for science, and is currently developing her 

own embryonic career as a science communicator. 


The Practical Chemistry website 

Reviewed by Tim Harrison, University of Bristol, UK 

Chemistry 

The Practical Chemistry website is a 

must for any science teacher or technician 

who wishes to engage and 

enthuse students in the excitement of 

experimental work or who wishes to 

demonstrate chemistry safely. 

This resource, begun in 2006, is continually 

developing, and at the time 

of writing contains 213 hands-on and 

demonstration chemistry practicals. 

The practicals are grouped into four 

sections. The Introductory section contains 

some of the simpler experiments 

for those students just beginning their 

studies of chemistry. In the 

Intermediate section, the experiments 

depend on students having been 

taught some basic chemistry; in the 

UK, these experiments would target 

students aged 14-16. The Advanced 

section is aimed at pre-university students. 

The final section, Enhancement, 

targets chemistry teachers who want 

experiments that are instructive and 

fun for students who are perhaps in 

chemistry clubs, and those who wish 

to perform the more spectacular 

chemistry demonstrations suitable for 

events such as science festivals and 

open days. 

Each experiment includes a brief 

introduction, notes on lesson organisation 

and timing, apparatus and 

chemical requirements, technical 

notes, procedure, teaching notes and, 

where appropriate, web links. 

Before each experiment is published 

online, the organisers of the website 

test them so that they “will work in 

any school laboratory”. In particular, 

the team has attempted to make sure 

that all hazards are identified and 

suitable precautions noted. 

A number of instructions on how to 

safely carry out standard chemistry 

laboratory techniques are also available. 

It should be noted that health 

and safety requirements may well differ 

from country to country, so this 

needs to be taken into account before 

use. Guidelines on health and safety 

are given at: www.practicalchemistry.org/ 

health-and-safety. 

Teachers who have exciting practical 

experiments may contribute to this 

body of work by submitting them 

through the website. Once they have 

been thoroughly assessed, the experiments 

may then become published 

online. 

The Practical Chemistry website is 

the result of a joint project of the 

Nuffield Curriculum Centre w1 and the 

Royal Society of Chemistry w2 in association 

with CLEAPSS w3 . 

details 

URL: www.practicalchemistry.org 

Maintained by a team led by Emma 

Woodley of the UK Royal Society of 

Chemistry. 


w1 – Nuffield Curriculum Centre 

explores new approaches to teaching 

and learning. See: 

www.nuffieldcurriculumcentre.org 

w2 – The Royal Society of Chemistry 

is the professional body for 

chemists in the UK. See: 

www.rsc.org 

w3 – CLEAPPS is an advisory service 

for practical science and technology 

in UK schools. See: 

www.cleapss.org.uk 

Resources 

For a list of all chemistry-related articles 

published in Science in School, 

see: www.scienceinschool.org/ 

chemistry 



Reviews 

Why Evolution is True 

By Jerry A. Coyne 

Reviewed by Bernhard Haubold, Max Planck Institute 

Biology 

Evolution 

for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany 

When I recently told a taxi driver 

that I was on my way to give a lecture 

on evolution in northern Germany, 

the young man asked me, looking 

straight ahead, “So, do you think 

Darwin got it right?” A bit taken 

aback, I answered that yes, by and 

large, Darwin had got it just right – 

only to be told that there was strong 

evidence that evolution was false. I 

was being chauffeured by a friendly 

creationist. 

Against this background of rising 

creationism, American biologist Jerry 

Coyne has given us a wonderful 

exposition as to Why Evolution is True. 

This is one of the rare books that is 

aimed at the beginner, but can also 

be enjoyed by the expert. It is based 

almost entirely on a naturalist’s 

perspective on evolution, leaving 

out the genetics and the mathematics. 

This is a good thing, as it makes 

evolution accessible and emulates 

Darwin, who, after all, knew little mathematics 

and got the genetics wrong. 

Coyne lays out his case in nine 

chapters. After an introduction that 

explains the elements of evolution, we 

hit rock bottom: the fossils that have 

been collected for the past one and a 

half centuries. One of the most spectacular 

recent finds, the fossil species 

Tiktaalik roseae w1 , links terrestrial 

tetrapods with fish. It had been predicted 

to exist, and a likely place to 

find it was a particular site in the 

Canadian Artic, where after five years 

of excavation it was finally unearthed 

in 2004. 

This predictive power of evolution 

is a recurrent theme of Coyne’s book. 

The chapter ‘Remnants’ deals with 

vestiges and atavistic features. Given 

the fact of common descent, these 

should not surprise us, but I was still 

intrigued to read that human babies 

are occasionally born with fully 

formed tails, and that dolphins have 

inactivated 80% of their olfactory 

receptors, as most of them are useless 

under water. 

The mechanism underlying dolphins’ 

adaptation to aquatic life is 

natural selection, the topic of the central 

chapter of the book. Natural 

selection is not popular among 

doubters of evolution, but in fact it 

can easily be observed around us in 

the increase of antibiotic resistance, 

recurrent influenza epidemics, and 

plant and animal breeding. In addition, 

natural selection can be measured 

in the laboratory and Coyne 

explains some of the most exciting 

work in experimental evolution of the 

past two decades. 

A special kind of natural selection is 

exerted though female mate choice 

and male competition for females. 

This ‘sexual selection’ is an old idea, 

but it has been difficult to pin down. 

Coyne cites elegant experiments that 

explain why male peacocks have such 

splendid tails. 

If natural selection is, as Coyne entitles 

the corresponding chapter, the 

‘Engine of Evolution’, species are its 

product. But to explain speciation is 

to explain reproductive isolation, and 

in many cases this has little to do with 

adaptation. Speciation is Coyne’s own 

research speciality, and he argues that 

in the vast majority of cases, it is an 

accidental by-product of geographic 

separation. 

Although to doubters, the evolution 

of dinosaurs and dolphins might be 

harmless, they draw the line at 

human evolution. The chapter ‘What 

about us?’ carefully lays out how we 

know that modern humans originated 

in Africa only 150 millennia ago. 

Coyne’s presentation of the fossil evidence 

for this, complemented by a 

comprehensive time line and fine 

drawings of anatomical details, is particularly 

compelling. One consequence 

of the recent origin of modern 

humans is that we are genetically 

more similar to each other than one 

might expect given our diverse 

shapes and colours. 

The topic of human genetic similarity 

brings us close to what Coyne calls 

the “unpleasant emotional consequences” 

that some people – including 

perhaps my taxi driver – feel 

when contemplating human evolution. 

Emotional reactions to evolution 

are also bound to come up in class, 

where Coyne’s book will be particularly 

helpful. Teachers of secondarylevel 

biology will find it full of vivid 

examples ready for transfer to the 

classroom. The lucid text is augmented 

by a glossary summarising the 

vocabulary of evolution, annotated 

suggestions for further reading, and a 

succinct guide to relevant web pages 


that cover topics ranging from 

Darwin’s collected works to resources 

for students and teachers. Perhaps 

best of all, Coyne’s measured tone 

may well entice students and readers 

to experience the liberating emotional 

consequences of contemplating the 

truth of evolution. 

details 

Publisher: Oxford University Press 

Publication year: 2009 

ISBN: 9780199230846 

Web reference 

w1 – To learn more about Tiktaalik 

roseae, visit this dedicated website: 

http://tiktaalik.uchicago.edu 

Resources 

Read more about natural selection 

and molecular evolution in: 

Bryk J (2010) Natural selection at 

the molecular level. Science in School 

14: 58-62. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2010/ 

issue14/evolution 

Learn more about common descent 

and gills in human embryonic 

development in: 

Patterson L (2010) Getting ahead in 

evolution. Science in School 14: 16-20. 

www.scienceinschool.org/2010/ 

issue14/amphioxus 

For a list of all resource reviews 

published in Science in School, see: 

www.scienceinschool.org/reviews 




Science comics and cartoons 

Comics have generally been considered as nothing more than a 

cheap pastime. However, Mico Tatalovic suggests some useful 

comics to help promote and explain science to students. 

There is an increasing amount 

of evidence that comics and 

still cartoons can be useful when 

teaching science. Children enjoy 

reading comics, and both the visual 

appeal of the artwork and the intriguing 

narrative (which can be humorous 

and educational) make comics an 

excellent medium for conveying scientific 

concepts in an interesting way. 

As scientists have become aware of 

this novel and appealing form of 

engaging with young people, a variety 

of educational science comics and 

cartoons has been produced and is 

now available for teachers to ‘spice 

up’ their science lessons. Some examples 

of these comics and their associated 

websites are given here. 

They can be used by teachers as a 

lesson starter, to determine students’ 

prior knowledge (such as existing 

scientific vocabulary, preconceptions 

and misconceptions), to motivate students 

to ask questions, and to help 

gauge students’ understanding of science 

topics by allowing them to produce 

their own comics and punchlines. 

With older groups, the comics 

could be set as preparatory homework 

for subsequent classroom discussion 

of the story’s scientific merit 

and credibility. 

Unless indicated otherwise, all of 

the following resources are free. 

Image courtesy of Jaleel 

Shujath, Edward Dunphy 

and Max Velati 

Image courtesy of The Young Scientists, Singapore – a science 

comic magazine series for children 

(www.theyoungscientists.in) 

the Planet Science website at www.planet-science.com/psp 

Image courtesy of Graham Manley (grahamman@hotmail.co.uk). Planet Super Powers resources can be found on 


General science 

Newton and Copernicus 

These are short comic strips about two lab rats whose conversations 

can motivate students to think about science 

and research: www.newtonandcopernicus.com 

A description of how to use these cartoons in the 

classroom can be found at: www.csun.edu/~jco69120 

Scientoons 

Indian scientist and science communicator Pradeep 

Srivastava has created cartoons embedding new research, 

ideas, data or scientific facts within the caricatures, satirical 

comments or dialogue: www.scientoon.com 

Image courtesy of Pradeep Srivastava 

photocopiable cartoons or a CD-ROM, from: www.conceptcartoons.com/index_flash.html 

The Young Scientists 

This comic book magazine, aimed at 5-13-year-olds, communicates 

science and the life stories of great scientists 

and promotes creative thinking and practical experimental 

skills. You can order the books and download sample 

issues from: www.theyoungscientists.in/products.html 

Max Axiom 

These comics cover a variety of topics from electromagnetism 

to natural selection and are aimed at students aged 8- 

14. They feature the superhero Max Axiom who ‘will do 

whatever it takes to make science super cool and accessible’. 

Copies can be ordered from: 

www.capstonepress.com/aspx/pDetail.aspx?Entity 

GUID=8bd6f56b-a478-44aa-ba47-93b69dce0b27 

Jim Ottaviani’s comics and graphic novels 

Nuclear engineer Jim Ottaviani’s comics include 

Dignifying Science (why women are underrepresented in 

science), Suspended in Language (Niels Bohr’s life and scientific 

discoveries), Fallout (science and politics of the first 

atomic bombs), Two-fisted Science (the history of science), 

Image courtesy of Jean-Pierre Petit (www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com) 

Planet Super Powers 

Created by Planet Science, The Battle for the Planet Science 

comic includes a competition to ‘engineer’ your own 

superhero. A teacher’s pack and activities are also available: 

www.planet-science.com/randomise/index.html? 

page=/psp/home.html&page=/psp/index.html 

The Adventures of Archibald Higgins 

This adventure series is the brainchild of French astrophysicist 

Jean-Pierre Petit, and the comics cover many 

advanced science topics in many languages: 

www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com 

Concept Cartoons 

These are single-frame cartoons that depict a single problem, 

such as ‘Would a snowman melt faster, slower or at 

the same rate if we put a coat around it?’. Offering no 

immediate solution, these cartoons make students think 

about the problem and discuss it. There are a few free 

examples online and the complete collection can be 

ordered in English and Welsh, as books, posters, 




Levitation (psychics and psychology of magic), Wire 

Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love (the science of 

love) and Charles R. Knight: Autobiography of an Artist (the 

story of an artist whose paintings influenced 20th century 

scientific fact and fiction). The books can be ordered from: 

www.gt-labs.com 

Big Time Attic comics and graphic novels 

Zander and Kevin Cannon have illustrated non-fiction 

graphic novels such as Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder 

Lizards (scientists who discovered dinosaur fossils), The 

Stuff of Life (all about DNA) and T-Minus: The Race to the 

Moon (astronomy). Their books can be ordered from: 

www.bigtimeattic.com 

Biology, health and medicine 

Interferon Force 

An exciting story about the battle between the immune 

system’s interferon molecules and flu viruses. Free hard 

copies are also available from: www.interferonforce.com 

Medikidz 

A group of five superheroes are followed on a journey 

around Mediland (the human body) so that young people 

can learn about medical issues. The books can be ordered 

via the website, which also provides additional resources 

for children on medicine: www.medikidz.com 

Jay Hossler’s comics and graphic novels 

Jay Hossler, Assistant Professor of Biology at Juniata 

College, Huntington, Pennsylvania, USA, has written and 

illustrated graphic novels such as Clan Apis (bee behaviour), 

Sandwalk Adventures (how natural selection works 

and how it differs from creation stories) and Optical 

Allusions (eye biology and evolution). You can read some 

of the shorter comics online and order the graphic novels 

from his website: www.jayhosler.com 

Image courtesy of Jaleel Shujath, Edward Dunphy and Max Velati 

Adventures in Synthetic Biology 

A good introduction to genetic modification and similar 

topics, available in English and Spanish: http://openwetware.org/wiki/Adventures 

The Conundrum of the Killer Coronavirus 

A two-page comic all about severe acute respiratory 

syndrome (SARS): www.biotechinstitute.org/resources 

/YWarticles/14.1/14.1.3.pdf 

World of Viruses 

Graphic novels developed by the University of Nebraska 

in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, which each present advanced 

scientific material about various viruses. You can download 

a sample and order the books here: www.worldofviruses.unl.edu/materials/stories.html 

Friends Forever – A Triumph Over TB 

A story illustrated in comic form for patients with 

tuberculosis, which aim to raise awareness of the disease: 

www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/tb/ 

tb-patient-comicbook.pdf 

Luís Figo and The World Tuberculosis Cup 

An educational comic book featuring a celebrity footballer 

and his support of the Stop TB Partnership to raise awareness 

of tuberculosis: www.stoptb.org/figo/assets/documents 

/bookdownload/FigoComicBook_ENG_low_res.pdf 

X-Men Life Lessons 

This comic book can be used to help young people who 

have survived serious burn injuries, and comes with a 

discussion booklet: www.starlight.org/xmen 

Cardiocomic 

In 2009, the Centre d’Investigació Cardiovascular 

(Cardiovascular Research Centre, CSIC-ICCC) in 

Barcelona, Spain, ran its first competition for school students 

to draw cartoons about cardiovascular disease. You 

can find the cartoons in Spanish and Catalan, as well as 

details on the 2010 competition, here: http://cardiocomic.blogspot.com 


Menudos corazones 

The Spanish ‘Menudos corazones’ foundation for children 

and young people with cardiopathies has edited three 

comics on the topic to help these youngsters cope better 

with their situation: www.menudoscorazones.org/ 

index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=295&Ite 

mid=122&lang=es 

Chemistry 

Selenia 

This chemistry comic series is designed to teach chemistry 

to pupils aged 7-10. Each issue covers a single subject, has 

an engaging narrative that explains the science involved, 

and features a glossary explaining the scientific terms: 

www.sciencecomics.uwe.ac.uk 

Images courtesy of Eric Pailharey & Fred Vignaux / ESA 

Vladimir Prelog 

A Croatian chemistry comic: http://prelog.fkit.hr/program/popularizacija/ 

Prelog_strip.pdf 

Physics, astronomy and space science 

Cassini-Huygens: a probe to Titan 

On 14 January 2005, the European probe Huygens entered 

the atmosphere of Titan – one of Saturn’s moons. Based 

on this major event in space exploration, the European 

Space Agency (ESA) has developed a comic book with 

supporting fact sheets for teachers to use in the classroom. 

They are available in Dutch, English, Finnish, French, 

German, Spanish and Swedish. See: www.esa.int/SPE- 

CIALS/Education/SEM6ZC9FTLF_0.html 

Cindi in Space 

A superhero style comic about the ionosphere and 

satellites, available in English and Spanish: http://cindispace.utdallas.edu/education/cindi_comic.html 

The STEL Mangas 

The Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory (STEL) of 

Nagaya University in Japan has produced a series of eight 

Manga comics on topics such as global warming, solar 

radiation, geomagnetism and cosmic rays. The comics are 

freely available in English and Japanese and for translation 

into other languages: www.stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ 

ste-www1/doce/outreach.html#anc_booklets 




Environmental issues and agriculture 

Ozzy Ozone 

Produced by the United Nations Environment 

Programme, this interactive comic provides information 

and activities about the ozone layer, environment, climate 

change and the atmosphere: www.ozzyozone.org 

Eco Agents 

An interactive online comic created by the European 

Environmental Agency to engage students with topics 

such as ecology and sustainable energy: http://ecoagents.eea.europa.eu 

Born in Rijeka, Croatia, Mico Tatalovic did a bachelor’s 

degree in biology at Oxford University, UK, and then a 

master’s in zoology at Cambridge University. While working 

on Cambridge University’s BlueSci magazine, he 

developed a love for science writing and went on to do a 

master’s in science communication at Imperial College, 

London. Mico is currently a freelance science writer. 

Science Stories 

Comic stories from the Rothamsted Research Institute, an 

agricultural research centre in Harpenden, UK, depicting 

researchers from the institute, in cartoon form, describing 

their areas of research: www.rothamsted.ac.uk/schools/ 

ScienceStories 

Water Heroes 

A comic story and associated teaching activities produced 

by Environment Canada to teach students about freshwater 

ecosystems and conservation: www.on.ec.gc.ca/greatlakeskids/water-heroes-e.html 

using comics in the science classroom 

The following articles offer suggestions on how to use 

comics in the science classroom. 

Keogh B et al. (1998). Concept cartoons: a new perspective 

on physics education. Physics Education 33: 219-224 

Tatalovic M (2009) Science comics as tools for science education 

and communication: a brief, exploratory study. 

Journal of Science Communication 8: A02. Free access at: 

http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/08/04/Jcom0804%282009% 

29A02/?searchterm=None 

Vilchez-Gonzales JM, Palacios, FJP (2006) Image of science 

in cartoons and its relationship with the image in 

comics. Physics Education 41: 240-249 

Weitkmap E, Buret F (2007). The Chemedian brings 

laughter to the chemistry classroom. International Journal 

of Science Education 29: 1911-1929 

Resources 

If you found this article helpful, you may like to read 

the other ‘Resources on the web’ articles published in 

Science in School. See: www.scienceinschool.org/web

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